A concerning incident has come to light. It appears that the founders of the crypto fintech company Bankera have been accused of embezzling funds raised through an ICO. They raised $114 million in the 2018 ICO, but nearly half of that was allegedly misappropriated by the three founders.

According to an investigation by OCCRP, Vitautas Karelavičius, Justas Dovilėvičius, and Mantas Mokevičius withdrew funds through their own bank to purchase luxury homes on the French Riviera and in Lithuania, and also issued personal loans worth several million euros.

Bankera's lawyers deny the fraud allegations, but in reality, dividends from the BNK token ended in 2022, and the promised banking license has not been granted. In other words, almost everything investors expected has not materialized.

Seeing incidents like this really highlights how risky the ICO era was. With large amounts of capital raised and little regulation or oversight, such abuses were more likely to happen. As the crypto market matures, these past incidents will likely continue to come to light.