Ian Holtz - The story of a scammer
Aphelion VeteransCEO at Aphelion, Owner of Orion Technologies & Bali Earth
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On June 1, Ian announced that Aphelion project run out of money, and he doesn’t have any more funds to pay for further development.
If you want to know more about the Aphelion ICO beginning, you should read this article from Atomic Ghost. Many red flags right from the start, that people ignored.
Ian Holtz is an US citizen. He lived in Spain for few years, and starting from 2019 he moved to Bali (Indonesia), where he opened a new business called Bali Earth.
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On April 15, 2019, 3 days before publishing an official announcement about Aphelion’s development (on April 18), which mislead investors and caused the price to pump 70% enabling him to sell 2.49 million APH same day, he posted this video on his Youtube account.
We saved this video and published it on our channel, in case he will delete it.
Since April 18 until June 1, Ian didn’t respond to the community except once, on May 21. Many people were asking about development and the draining funds and his only post on telegram, in 1.5 months, was this:
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This year, from February 11 until May 16, Ian sold 15 million APH out of a total of 21 million, and 6,000 NEO from team’s wallet ($206,130 in total). This funds where supposed to be used for development and marketing.
Although all this money were spent, Aphelion had little to no development (aph-desktop-web-dex update was done for free by a community member) and absolutely no marketing this year. Instead, Ian moved to Bali with his family, started a new business there, and he spends a good part of his time at fancy clubs and restaurants like Finns Beach Club and La Brisa.
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Based on the Instagram post dates, you can see they enjoy spending time at Finns Beach Club. Ian also stated that they “sit here and watch this surfers and boogie boarders all day long” at La Brisa Beach Restaurant (see his video).
Why are we saying that Ian sold 15 million APH? Because the Aphelion team presented on aphelion.org doesn’t exist anymore. Most of them left the project after they closed the DEX on November 22, 2018.
Now it’s only Ian and a telegram admin named Gareth, but he keeps the old team on Aphelion website to mislead investors.
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Beside Aphelion and Bali Earth businesses, he’s also the co-founder and managing director of Orion Technologies, a business located in the USA (Greater Denver Area) which is specialized in Marketing and Advertising.
It is kinda ironic that he’s the Managing Director of a Marketing and Advertising company, but he doesn’t promote Aphelion at all.
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Let’s see step by step how this project “run out of money”
We will present how Ian’s lifestyle changed after he took $4.8 million from investors through Aphelion ICO and sold at least 15 million APH tokens on Kucoin and 6,000 NEO tokens for “development”.
We used public information from the social media accounts of him and his wife. At the time of writing, all this information and their social media profiles were public!
0. Ian’s lifestyle before Aphelion ICO
Ian Holtz is an American citizen, from Dana Point, California (according to his wife’s Facebook posts).
Based on her Facebook posts, they didn’t travel outside US.
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In 2017, they’ve moved to Spain, in El Masnou area, near Barcelona. They didn’t travel outside Spain except once, in Milan, Italy.
Nothing fancy so far. They had a normal life.
1. ICO event
Aphelion ICO started on November 15, 2017 and has ended on December 8, 2017. They’ve raised $4,800,000. The accepted cryptocurrencies for buying APH token in the ICO where ETH, BTC, NEO.
We’ve asked Ian many times about the ETH and BTC addresses from the ICO event, but he never replied.
We’ve managed to find the BTC address of Aphelion’s ICO. All funds were gone after ICO ended. The first BTC sell was on November 7 (4 BTC) and the last sell was on December 14 (62 BTC).
All BTC sold from November 7 until December 14, brought them 2.11 million dollars (154 BTC).
2. Ian’s lifestyle after Aphelion ICO
Long story short: vacation after vacation in luxury locations. It all looks like a great retirement plan.
December 15, 2017 — Tenerife — The Ritz-Carlton, Abama
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May 7, 2018 — Traveling to Singapore and staying at Marina Bay Sands.
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May 14 , 2018— Ubud, Bali
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May 18, 2018 — Denpasar, Bali — Finns Beach Club
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May 24, 2018 — Nusa Dua, Bali — The Laguna a Luxury Collection Resort & Spa
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May 27, 2018 — Nusa Dua, Bali — The Laguna a Luxury Collection Resort & Spa — Wedding or vow renewal
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June 10, 2018 — Uluwatu, Bali — Sundays Beach Club
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Gili Islands — Posted on June 18 (they’ve been there before June 12)
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For more than a month, from May 7 until June 12, 2018, they had their longest and most expensive vacation so far.
Another vacation in 2018, now in Russia. They went to 2018 FIFA World Cup.
June 22, 2018 — Russia - Fifa World Cup 2018
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June 24, 2018 — Saint Petersburg, Russia
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July 2, 2018 — Lyon, France
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July 7, 2018 — Geneva, Switzerland
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July 7, 2018 — Zurich, Switzerland
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July 8, 2018 — Milan, Italy
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July 9, 2018 — Como, Italy
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July 11, 2018 — Monte-Carlo, Monaco
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Let’s recap Ian’s lifestyle in 2018
- Singapore — Singapore
- Indonesia — Bali Island (multiple locations) and Gili Islands
- Russia — Fifa World Cup
- France — Lyon
- Switzerland — Geneva and Zurich
- Italy — Milan and Como
- Monaco — Monte-Carlo
2019 is even more exciting
A short vacation to Portugal before moving to Bali with his family.
January 12, 2019 — Nazare, Portugal
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February 11 & 14 - 3.15 million APH sold and moving to Bali
Moving to Bali seems like a great idea, but you need some money for that, don’t you?
No problem.
On February 11, 2019, Ian sold 2 million APH (1, 2) worth of $20,000 at that time.
3 days later they were in Kuala Lumpur at Shangri-La Hotel, on their way to Bali.
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Right on February 14, 2019 (the date of the Instagram post above), Ian sold another 1.15 million APH worth of $11,000.
Must be exhausting selling 3.15 million APH in 3 days, so Ian needs some rest at the Finns Beach Club VIP.
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March 4 — a new logo for his new business in Bali
Ian started a new business in Bali, called The Bali Earth Collection.
“Providing unique Balinese handmade jewelry, fashion, art, home goods & furniture to the world while supporting local artists and communities.”
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March 12 - 5.35 million APH sold
1 week after he started his new business in Bali, on March 12, Ian made the biggest sell from team funds - 5.35 million APH (1,2,3,4) worth of $53,500 at that time. Coincidence?
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This sell needs to be celebrated at the Hard Rock Hotel Bali.
April 3 - 2,961 NEO sold
Out of the 6,070 NEO in Aphelion team’s funds, Ian sold 2,961 NEO worth of $36,330.
April 9 - 2,000 NEO sold
On April 9, Ian sold another 2,000 NEO worth of $25,500 at that time.
April 15 — Ian published a video on his Youtube channel
Above is the video saved and published on our channel. In case he doesn’t delete his video you can find the original here (same length).
April 18 - price manipulation and 2.49 million APH sold
On April 18, 2019, Ian made an official announcement on Medium assuring Aphelion investors that everything is on track, and they continue Aphelion development. After this announcement, the price of APH token spiked +70%, and he sold 2.49 million APH worth of $25,000 at that time.
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May 4 — Time to relax
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May 7 - 2 million APH sold
On May 7 Ian sold another 2 million APH worth of $12,000 at that time.
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May 16 - 2 million APH and 1,109 NEO sold
This is the last sell before Ian announcing they run out of money. The last 1,109 NEO tokens from Aphelion funds where sold on May 16.
Out of 21 million APH that were supposed to be used for development and marketing, Ian Holtz sold 15 million from February 11 until May 16, when he sold another 2 million APH.
This last sell was worth $22,800 (14,200 + 8,600) at that time.
May 18 - Bali Safari Park
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What a better way to end this stressful chapter of his life, than visiting the Bali Safari Park.
Let’s recap
From February 11 until May 16, Ian Holtz moved to Bali, started and new business and cashed out $206,130 from Aphelion funds.
June 1 — Announcing that Aphelion project is out of money
From April until June 1 when Ian announced basically the end of Aphelion project, the community tried to reach Ian endless times. We’ve tagged him on Aphelion telegram channel, we’ve sent him private messages asking for more info about the draining funds, about the development progress, about marketing all things that needed to be done for the project to grow.
All we got was a manipulative article on April 18 which stated that everything is fine and this telegram message on May 21, ten days before announcing Aphelion is out of money:
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You can search https://t.me/apheliontoken and see how many times we tried to reach Ian for more details about the development progress of Aphelion.
It was all in vain.
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What’s next?
Report Suspected Securities Fraud or Wrongdoing https://www.sec.gov/tcr
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Ian Holtz violated 5 out of 8 SEC regulations.
- Fraudulent or unregistered offer or sale of securities — he didn’t register APH token as security, and he listed NEX (security token) on Aphelion DEX to be traded by anyone, including US investors.
- Theft or misappropriation of funds or securities — he spent most of the ICO money and team funds in his own benefit. This is the team wallet address: APiVY5RCKYVvT9mLpUDgpDVQKwKdsu6ifo
- Manipulation of a security’s price or volume — on April 18 2019, he made an official announcement on Medium assuring Aphelion investors that everything is on track and they continue Aphelion development. After this announcement, the price of APH token spiked +70%, and he sold 2.49 million APH.
- Insider trading - knowing the Aphelion DEX will be closed soon, Ian Holtz published 3 article which caused the price to pump at 1100 satoshi, just to dump, 1 week later, to all time low since Aphelion ICO, 46 satoshi.
- False or misleading statements about a company —he always stated that Aphelion Project is doing well and they will continue developing it, even 11 days before he announced that he run out of funds, and they can’t develop it anymore. The Aphelion whitepaper (download here) mislead investors into thinking Aphelion development will progress fast, and a fully functional service will be ready in Q1 2018. Moreover, investors should expect partnerships, market expansion to all continents (remember that they blocked the USA), and "raving fans".
Soon we will fill complaints to the U.S. authorities and the Indonesian Government.
Based on the Indonesian Legislation, Ian Holtz can be extradited to the United States.
1. Fraudulent or unregistered offer or sale of securities
A. According to SEC Framework, APH token should be considered a security.
- Aphelion did require an investment of money.
- Aphelion was managed like an enterprise by Ian Holtz (CEO), and the fortunes of APH purchasers were linked to the success of Ian Holtz’s efforts managing the promotion and development of Aphelion.
- Aphelion holders received dividends through fees taken by the exchange. 80% of the trading fees were distributed to Aphelion investors.
You will find more details about SEC Framework here.
B. The NEX token was listed on Aphelion DEX on October 23, 2018, and anyone (including U.S. investors) could traded NEX until November 22, 2018 (1 month), when they’ve closed Aphelion DEX.
NEX is a security token and Aphelion didn’t have the legal rights to trade its platform.
Aphelion DEX volume skyrocketed after listing NEX.
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NEX was traded on Aphelion DEX for 1 month without any restrictions for U.S. investors.
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Aphelion DEX was reopened on January 1, 2019, with KYC integration and U.S. IP ban. From this date, U.S. investors have no longer been able to trade on Aphelion DEX.
2. Theft or misappropriation of funds or securities
The timeline of events shows too many coincidences to ignore the fact that Ian Holtz’s lifestyle has improved significantly after Aphelion ICO, while he failed to deliver what he promised, to Aphelion investors, in the whitepaper.
We’ve saved the whitepaper here is case it will be deleted.
After 1.5 years of activity, and after spending millions of dollars on “development” and “marketing” this is how Aphelion source code, and economic performance look like:
33 contributions in the last year
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From all time high until today, APH value has decreased 367 times.
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3. Manipulation of a security’s price or volume
On April 18, 2019, Ian Holtz made an official announcement, assuring Aphelion investors that everything is on track and the team continues Aphelion’s development.
At that time, we had no idea who was “the team” and who was developing Aphelion.
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After his announcement, the price of APH token increased 72%, from 157 to 270 satoshi, and he sold 2.49 million APH.
From February to May, he continuously dumped APH on his investors. 15,000,000 APH in total.
4. Insider trading and market manipulation
Knowing Aphelion DEX will be shut down on November 21, Ian Holtz pushed 3 articles (2 of them on the same day) about how well everything is going.
November 6, 2018 - Crosses $1M in Trading Volume Month 1
November 8, 2018 - Mobile Release Imminent
November 8, 2018 - Whats Next For Aphelion DEX? - he talks about Crosschain implementation in Q1 2019 (according to the whitepaper, Crosschain should have been ready by Q1 2018, 1 year ago).
That was a lie. Crosschain is an important subject here, because he stated that all the money spent from Aphelion team's wallet are going into crosschain development.
With this 3 updates he pumped to 1100 satoshi (reached on November 13), most probably he and other team members sold their personal holding of APH token (outside team's wallet) for a good price, just to announce 1 week later that they will close Aphelion DEX.
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From 1100 satoshi, APH price dropped to 46 satoshi (almost 24 times) in 1 week.
The official announcement about closing Aphelion DEX: https://medium.com/@ianholtz/aphelion-disables-mainnet-dex-what-it-means-and-where-do-we-go-from-here-953b4dfa6bb7
The post is dated November 22, but he announced on Aphelion Telegram Channel on November 21, near midnight hour.
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5. False or misleading statements about a company
- The team presented on Aphelion website does not exist anymore! Most of the members left the team last year after DEX was closed.
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2. Marketing will be picking up significantly after mobile release - marketing never happened.
3. The promises made in the Aphelion whitepaper (link for download) couldn't be more wrong.
Q1 2018 - A NEO Year Begins
Full dApp development commences
Cross blockchain transactions - this was not achieved not even in Q2 2019! Crosschain is also "the reason" he run out of funds. This should have been done more than 1 year ago with the $4.8 million raised in the ICO.
Solve for liquidity verification
Marketing continues
Exchange registrations begin
Audits
APH traded on exchanges
Launch initial version Aphelion DApp
Aphelion dApp community development & growth
Continued market analysis
Champion advancement of the NEO smart economy
2018 and into the future - 2018 and into the future [tbd]
Continue to build dev team - by end of November 2018, most devs left Aphelion team.
Build brand loyalty & create raving fans - the only usage for Aphelion DEX was to trade NEX (a security token) because it was the 2 places you can trade it.
Expand market reach to all continents - by the end of November 2018, the U.S. investors were blocked from using Aphelion DEX.
Leverage partnerships to promote innovation and integration - there was none.
Achieve preeminence - on June 1, 2019, Ian Holtz announced he run out of funds.
4. Ian Holtz always stated that Aphelion Project is doing well and they will continue developing it, even 11 days before he announced that he run out of funds, and they can’t develop it anymore.
April 18, 2019, 1 month and a half before running out of funds
https://medium.com/@ianholtz/aphelion-weekly-update-april-18-2019-1a99dd7fcab3
Ian Holtz's statement:
First of all, Aphelion is not going anywhere…we will continue to support our multiple channels of DEX trading, APH commit returns and KYC approvals.
With that being said, as stated in our previous updates, the next phase of Aphelion is to integrate:
- Multichain wallet support for BTC and others (announcements to come)
- Instant matching engine for the DEX
- New look and feel for the wallet UI
As those initiatives come further along, we are committed to sharing the progress as we’ve done in the past. We understand the community is eager to see progress and we will do our best to share those updates as they come.
In the meantime, we encourage the community’s patience and we can ensure the Aphelion DEX/Wallet won’t be going anywhere, we are here to stay.
Thank you for your continued support.
May 21, 2019, 11 days before running out of funds
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Since his last update, on April 18, numerous members of the community asked Ian Holtz about the development of the project and the draining funds from team's wallet.
For more than a month he never replied!
From April 18 until May 21, this is the only reply we've got: Yes Aphelion is alive, a more detailed updated will come before June.
- That updated didn't come before June. It came on June 1.
- He mislead Aphelion investors into thinking everything is fine. We only got his last update which stated that "they" continue the development of Aphelion and Gareth, the telegram admin, reassured the community that everything is ok.
- He didn't say anything about having trouble with development funds.
This kind of behaviour started around March, 2019.
Do you remember what happened in March? Biggest sell from Aphelion funds (5.35 million APH sold) and new business in Bali (Bali Earh).
Was this premeditated?
Let's look at the rate of Ian Holtz's updates after he came back from his 2 month vacation (May-July 2018):
6 updates in July 2018
9 updates in August 2018
9 updates in September 2018
11 updates in October 2018
7 updates in November 2018
7 updates in December 2018
8 updates in January 2019
In February 2019 he moved to Bali and started a new business there.
5 updates in February 2019
2 updates in March 2019
2 updates in April 2019
0 updates in May 2019
1 update in June 2019 - announcing he run out of money for Aphelion development
Looks like he gave up on Aphelion after he moved to Bali.
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SCAM UPDATE
Craig Neil, Aphelion co-founder, and Ian Holtz's business partner, pulled out another exit scam with Modern Finance Chain (MFX).
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This people made a living from scamming people.
Read more about Craig Neil and Modern Finance Chain scam:
https://beincrypto.com/did-modern-finance-chain-mfx-just-exit-scam/
Can you spot the similarities between Aphelion and Modern Finance Chain exit scams?
Saint Kitts and Nevis
http://theworldagenda.com/news/modern-finance-chain-considers-restructure-insolvency/154640/
Modern Finance Chain ("MFC" or the "Company") has decided to file for relief under the Bankruptcy Code for the St. Kitts and Nevis Insolvency act.
Remember that Aphelion, Ltd is also located in Saint Kitts and Nevis, in the Caribbean.
This was planned all along to avoid taxes and fill for insolvency under the Bankruptcy Code of the St. Kitts and Nevis.
Is that simple. If they "run out of ICO money" they can get away with it thanks to the Bankruptcy Code of the St. Kitts and Nevis.
A Tax Haven
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Nevis, together with St. Kitts, forms the St. Kitts and Nevis Federation. Nevis offers tax-friendly formation of offshore limited liability companies (LLCs), trusts and foundations, along with excellent offshore banking and insurance services.
Nevis provides financial privacy by not making public any information regarding owners and directors of offshore companies. Incorporation in Nevis only requires one director and one shareholder, who can be the same person. A Nevis exempt trust is exempted from taxation on any income earned outside of Nevis, including dividends and interest. Nevis trusts do not have to pay stamp duty on transactions.
Nevis doesn't impose any local taxes on income earned outside of the jurisdiction. Offshore companies and their owners do not have to pay withholding taxes, capital gains taxes or estate taxes, and they are not subject to corporate taxes or local taxes on income generated outside of Nevis.
There are no exchange controls in Nevis, and the country has steadfastly refused to sign any taxation treaties with other countries.
Ian Holtz and Craig Neil history
https://www.reddit.com/r/NEO/comments/74julo/aphelion_announce_ico_and_plans_to_build_neo/dnyx6vq/