Oyster Protocol (PRL) (2/4)

We continue our list with another entry from the infamous ICO days of cryptocurrency. This chapter in the crypto history books involves nearly 1,000 initial coin offerings and an estimated 20 billion in funds raised. With that type of volume, unfortunately many of the projects didn’t turn out and some were downright fraudulent.

Speaking of fraudulent, enter the Oyster Protocol, which launched with an ICO in 2017. Claiming to provide decentralized and anonymous file storage, the project raised nearly 2 million in the first week.

The founder of PRL who went under the pseudonym “Bruno Block” (later identified as  Amir Bruno Elmaani) apparently had the ability to mint new PRL tokens at any time despite advertising that their was a fixed supply. Elmaani was eventually charged with tax evasion from the sale of PRL tokens.

Elmaani, who failed to report any income in 2018 was aleged to have purchase 700k in home and over 10 million to multiple yachts. Yes, you read the correct, we used the words multiple and yachts in the same sentence.

At the time of this article, the artist formerly known as Bruno Block has yet to be sentenced, but it appears he faces up to 5 years in prison. Yikes!