Tron Foundation Addresses Claims of Inaction Leading to $30M Theft by Imposter Pyramid Scheme

The Tron Foundation has released an official statement that addresses its position on the events that occurred in Beijing on Monday, July 8^th. There were rumors that the Tron offices in Beijing had been raided by the police but according to the statement, the police were actually called to provide protection to the employees of Raybo Technologies, an affiliate of Tron Foundation.

The company’s office came under attack by an angry mob of scam victims who accused Tron of scamming them off their money using a pyramid scheme closely affiliated to the foundation. The statement explains that the scammers used the “Chinese-language version of TRON’s name to defraud investors.”

The scheme called “Wave Field Super Community” was launched in January this year and promised the victims “high rates of return on their investments in the name of TRON, BitTorrent and uTorrent.” As a classic pyramid scheme, the Wave Field Super Community employed the multi-level marketing (MLM) model to recruit new investors. The scheme closed its doors and accounts on July 1^st leaving several investors high and dry.

One lady victim named Xia Bing committed suicide following the disappearance of the scheme according to a suicide note that has been doing rounds in Chinese social media platforms. She had allegedly borrowed money to invest in the scheme only to lose it. The note first appeared on the Chinese website Nuclear Finance.

At the time of the disappearance, the Wave Field Super Community scammers took with them about 200 million CNY (close to $30 million). The money has been reportedly moved out of the scheme’s accounts. According to reports from the Beijing fiasco, the victims claimed that Tron CEO should have denounced the scam to protect the investors against losing their money.

They accused the Tron Foundation CEO of sitting idle as scammers used their name to defraud them. In the statement, the Tron Foundation wrote that:

“[Its] officials expressed their sympathy and understanding for those who had been deceived, however, the company strongly condemns acts of violence that may be perpetrated as a result of events that are not in its direct control.”

The Wave Field Super Community victims may not have a recourse if the scammers successfully evade the police as Tron has categorically stated it took the necessary steps to warn investors across several platforms not to invest in shady schemes. In the statement, the foundation wrote:

“In regards to reports of TRON’s inaction specifically regarding the Wave Field Super Community scam, in January after learning of the Wave Field Super Community and that it had been attracting investors in the name of TRON, TRON warned investors on its WeChat messaging group, Wei Bo official channels — Wei Bo and Dou Yin, etc. — to beware of potentially fraudulent schemes. The company posts similar warnings in its English-language territories and has a Community team that operates across the globe to answer investor questions and listen to problems.”