Influencer ESysman Promotes Russian Sanctioned Criminals


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The Shark Tank investor Kevin O’Leary, aka Mr. Wonderful, was hired for $15m to promote the crypto exchange FTX as a company spokesperson.  After the company went bankrupt, people began asking how a company formed in 2019 could have defrauded investors for over 30 billion US dollars.  The answer is simple, the crypto criminal empire used known celebrities to promote the company to their fans and followers.

Since FTX filed bankruptcy, several of its’ brand ambassadors such as Tom Brady, Madonna, and others were sued by investors for their participation in media campaigns to promote the company.  On the same day FTX former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas, Kevin O’Leary was forced to appear in Washington before the US Congress to give testimony Russian Sanctioned Criminals .

Under oath, Kevin O’Leary has admitted of the $15m, he invested nearly $10m into the crypto exchange giant.  The former FTX spokesman also confessed to house representatives that the crypto company provided additional funds in compensation for him to pay taxes, and furthermore gave him over $1 million of FTX corporate equity.

Bernd Dietel, a social media marketing specialist from Oregon shared his opinion by explaining, “Mr. O’Leary is not a victim.  He knowingly used his public image, social media accounts, and business connections to promote and profit from the criminal activity.”

According to branding experts, using celebrity accounts on social media to dupe investors has become the new norm.  Forbes reported earlier this week eight individuals were arrested by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for a $100m pump-and-dump stock scheme involving celebrity influencers to illegally promote and manipulate stock.

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In addition, CNN reported earlier this week that Justin Bieber, Kevin Hart and Jimmy Fallon were named among 27 defendants in a class-action lawsuit for their marketing of the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs.

Bernd Dietel explains the phenomena of millennial marketing techniques, “Social media accounts are used to promote a wide range of products and services.  Most often, the influencers do not reveal they are being paid off by the entities they are promoting.  Once the fraud is revealed, the superstar’s seemingly distance themselves from co-conspirator responsibility by claiming they were nothing more than a paid sponsor.”

Mr. Dietel added, “The same year FTX was incorporated in 2019, Netflix was in the Bahamas creating an unrelated documentary called ‘Fyre’ which revealed how media influencers are being used to manipulate the public”.

According to a spokesman at the Department of Justice (DOJ), “Anybody caught promote or profiting from criminal activity will actively be sought out and brought to justice”.  The DOJ is now investigating several known celebrities including the Youtube marketer Terrence Ward, aka ‘ESysman’ known for promoting luxury Yachts.

According to an investigator who spoke on condition of anonymity, “Terrence Ward is a Yacht enthusiast with 230k Youtube followers. He received money directly into his HSBC personal account from Burgess Yachting Financial Services Limited, a company known to broker deals on behalf of sanctioned Russian oligarchs.”

According to Treasury Officials at the IRS working in cooperation with Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) in the United Kingdom, on February 7th, 2022, Terrence received 35,000 GBP for his marketing promotion under the alias ESysman from Burgess Yachting Financial Services Limited.  On October 28th, 2022, he again received 25,000 GBP (approximately $30,500) for “Retainer Services”.  Despite receiving the funds, Terrence Ward did not disclose to his social media followers that he is under retainer by Burgess, nor did he expose that he’s been paid off via a proxy to promote internationally sanctioned property.

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According to sources familiar with the case who released a screenshot copy of the bank transfers, the money was paid to Mr. Wards personal bank account at HSBC in London for promoting shipping vessels such as “MySky”, a yacht brokered by Burgess Yachts and owned by the internationally sanctioned Igor Kesaev.

Just to add perspective, Mr. Kesaev is a Russian billionaire arms dealer who profits from war and attrition.  Unlike Victor Bout, the merchant of war, Mr. Kesaev has the money, means and political connection with Vladimir Putin to stay out of prison.  Nevertheless, promoting his name or assets on social media to Western Europe or America is synonymous with a celebrity marketing the Taliban or Osama Ben Laden.

The Guardian Newspaper ran a story on Mr. Kesaev’s shipping vessel ‘MySky’, noting the Monaco Yacht Show distributed a catalog with a statement to brokers clarifying, “Advertising MySky in either printed publications, on the internet, or in any other medium is strictly prohibited.”

An article published on the French media site News365 referred to Esysman’s practice of being paid off to promote sanctioned Russians by stating, “During a report on yachts belonging to Russian oligarchs who are under American and European sanctions, Terrence Ward reportedly spread false information in order to favor some of his business partners.”

Before becoming a Youtube influencer, ESysman was employed as a crew member on the vessel ‘ICE’, a super yacht owned by the by the Vice President of Equatorial Guinea Teodoro Nguema Obiang that has since been sanctioned by the USA and UK.  This prompted one investigator close to the case to state, “If you sleep with dogs, don’t be surprised if you wake up with flees”.

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According to Homeland Security Agent Raul Humberto Gonzalez, “The value of crypto, stocks, bonds, and even yachts are often determined by social networking, both online and offline.  While the US and other countries have strict laws against promoting sanctioned individuals or their property, the local and international governments need to work together by introducing special legislation forcing celebrities and brand ambassadors to reveal (to their fans and followers) that they are being paid off for their services.”

Gonzalez goes on to explain, “I recently read that Keven O’Leary promised to get his $15m back from FTX.  What nobody is talking about is the $15m was not corporate operational funds, rather money stolen from customers.  Mr. O’Leary should be forced to return every cent.  After all, if a celebrity fails to disclose that they are being paid off to promote products, services, financial instruments, or even sanctioned property for the purpose of artificially increasing value, they need to face a jury of their peers via the criminal justice system”.

Read More : Razelnews


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shahnaz zulfqar
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