Dubious Character

I was contemplating whether I should be writing this, then a friend texted me and showed me a posting by @therealwolf. The article available through this link.

I was one of those guys that stood by him and tried to help him out when he was in Malaysia. It started off with a story of how he was robbed in Thailand and how he is trying to stay sober from his drug addiction. He was introduced to me by @littlenewthings.

I did my part as a friend and tried to help him out by raising some funds, albeit not much but we try to help

Fund Raising for Ben Schwartz

Link

The reason I write this is not to name and shame anyone but I think the truth of this man ought to be revealed because there are still many people out there that maybe scammed by him. I will try to keep this factual and avoid my own judgment from taking the better of me.

The Neverending Spell of Bad Luck

I believe that when a man is down and in the ruts, you don't kick him, instead you extend your hand to help him. With that thought, many of us in this discord group called #unmentionables tried our best to stand by @fatpandadesign (that was what he was previously known).

I can't believe that this man has worse luck than me. If swims he will probably drown, if he walks in the backalley he will be robbed, if he bets on a horse the horse would fall sick, if he takes medicine he would likely swallow the wrong pill and choke and the list is endless.

Unreasonable Demands

We raised some money for him and I personally topped up the amount and transferred to him which was purportedly to help him out financially after he burnt a huge hole in his pocket from the hospitalisation. I was not spared the heckling and cusses by him when I enquired further about him which I believe was his way of avoiding to answer me. In the fit of rage, he told me to return the money to the donors.

I find it very disconcerting because this man has not been consistent with his version of story and he is unable to follow through with his stories. After merely a few days of 'severing ties' with me, suddenly he messaged me and asked me when I am able to transfer the collection that we managed to raise for him.

I transferred the money to him on 2 different occassions and I believe that his wallet or mine would still show the transaction. He had used me to help him pay for his accommodation in Malaysia on the pretext that he is not able to convert his cryptos to cash and I assisted. He paid me but it is always lesser than the amount that I was supposed to hand to the landlord. I thought, well, if that is within my abililty, I will assist.

He definitely know that the amount that he gave me is insufficient given his ability to spin elaborate stories of series of unfortunate events and keeping up with the stories that he concocted.

There are occassions that I have to make immediate change of cryptos to fiat and hand to him personally because he said he has no money to eat. I took leave from work and pass him the dough. I gave him the benefit of doubt.

Stories Became more Outrageous

This is one individual that lends his credibility on the name of others. He would drop names of the numerous whales that has lend their support to his ultra dubious pandacoin and if I have to list down the stories it would sound something like this:

• Pandacoin is first of its kind, revolutionary and will change the crypto market (when asked, he said it has to be kept secret)
• Many whales have invested in the pandacoin through its ICO because they knew and saw the utiity and value in it
• When asked about the whitepaper, he couldn't produce any
• When asked about who his developers are, he is unable to name them

To the above, I asked

'I am surprised why people would part with their money if they have no knowledge about what your coin is, in the absence of a whitepaper and a credible platform because the names you dropped are not people who are new to the crypto world'

At that time, there were talks about how he gambled and he thought it would be good to do some explanation to me and he came up with this story about how he allow a young boy who found a hack of making money through steem dice. I told him that I found that pretty unbelievable because the system of 'provably fair' would determine how the system works and there is no hack and there could be a method of wagering which still falls down on probabilities. So, if someone is reading this artice, I believe the evidence of betting is available in his wallet. The amount that was wagered is quite huge and it even went up to the sum of 90 steem and so on and most of the returns, shows that he lost and there is no systematic execution. This man is drunk on gambling and it is available for everyone to see.

He left Malaysia and thereafter he could not be contacted. During that time, money in the group account @unmentionables were used by him. He of has a full version of how epilepsy and seizures took the better of him and how he ran into another spate of bad luck in Portugal (because he was supposed to attend the Steemfest). That became quite questionable and I started to question his excuses because some were simply illogical.

I raise the issue in the discord group and a few took it to question my conduct. But really there is nothing to be gained.

Ben, if you are reading this, this isn't meant to shame you but I think everyone in this platform should be alerted. You played on the sympathy of many and these people who stood by you did not even caution themselves that they are taken for a ride. You seem like a pretty resourceful guy because of the stories that you can imagine and create and in order to back those stories, you have some other corroborative evidence too.

I hope that you see there are people who show genuine concern for your wellbeing. I wish you all the best in your endeavour.

Here are some people whom I think may want to know my side of the story:

@littlenewthings @bitrocker2020 @neoxian @hopehuggs @chloephuan