The founders of now-collapsed Lithuanian crypto challenge Bankera (BNK) used funds from its much-hyped preliminary coin providing (ICO) to purchase up luxurious actual property, together with a villa on the French Riviera and high-end property in Lithuania, leaving unfortunate buyers a collective €100 million ($113.7 million) out of pocket.
That is based on a joint investigation by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Mission (OCCRP) and Lithuanian outlet 15min.
Bankera’s founders Vytautas Karalevičius, Justas Dobiliauskas, and Mantas Mockevičius raised the funds from greater than 100,000 buyers in the course of the 2017 ICO, promising to create “a bank for the blockchain era.”
Nevertheless, based on the OCCRP, as a substitute of constructing the promised blockchain-powered financial institution, the founders seem to have funneled tens of millions into an intensive actual property portfolio by way of an internet of firms and a privately owned Pacific island financial institution.
The ICO proceeds, initially meant to develop cryptocurrency infrastructure and banking providers, have been reportedly used to again a sequence of opaque loans, a lot of which have been routed by Pacific Personal Financial institution (PPB) in Vanuatu — a financial institution the trio quietly acquired close to the top of the ICO.
Properties reportedly bought embrace a €1.1 million ($1.25 million) villa in Èze, France; a number of properties in Vilnius, Lithuania; and a beachfront resort in Vanuatu.
The transactions have been facilitated utilizing accounts in PPB, the place leaked financial institution information present over €45 million ($51 million) was transferred from Lithuania-based Bankera ecosystem firms.
The ICO came about between August 2017 and early 2018, peaking in the course of the international crypto increase. Within the years that adopted, the BNK token collapsed in worth, whereas weekly payouts to buyers — a key function marketed within the white paper — additionally dwindled and have been finally halted in 2022.
By 2025, the token’s whole market capitalization had plummeted to about $1 million.
Picture courtesy of James O’Brien/OCCRP
Kathryn Westmore, a monetary crime professional on the Royal United Providers Institute, advised reporters, “To extract funds and seemingly use them to finance personal spending raises suspicions that investors have been misled and [the co-founders] have profited personally.”
She additionally claimed that the rash of ICOs in 2017 and 2018 was “the epitome of the wild west of crypto,” and added that individuals dealing with losses from crypto investments typically miss out on compensation, due partly to the dearth of oversight of the sector.
Regardless of a number of makes an attempt by reporters to contact Bankera’s founders, no direct response was obtained by the OCCRP. Legal professionals for Bankera UAB, considered one of a number of entities within the “Bankera ecosystem,” denied any wrongdoing and claimed that the PPB acquisition was a part of a broader technique to construct a blockchain-powered neobank.
In addition they acknowledged the token’s decline however insisted that the model stays profitable.
The Central Financial institution of Lithuania has confirmed it referred the case to regulation enforcement however declined to reveal additional particulars. In the meantime, the founders proceed to look at cryptocurrency conferences and preserve lively roles in Lithuania’s fintech scene.
Whereas Bankera’s web site nonetheless advertises a “modern bank account alternative,” it has did not safe a European Union banking license seven years after its launch.
