The Austrian blockchain entrepreneur Julian Hosp is facing new challenges with his latest venture, Cake Group, FinTelegram reports. Hosp, who has gained notoriety in the blockchain industry, especially after his involvement in the now-defunct TenX, is again in the spotlight for alleged financial mismanagement. TenX, which raised $80 million in an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) during the 2017 cryptocurrency boom, was regarded as an exit scam by the industry.
The Cake Group Battle
The crypto venture TenX raised $80 million from some 4,000 investors in its ICO amid the crypto hype in 2017. The scheme later collapsed and is regarded as an exit scam. The recent developments at Cake Group, where Hosp is a co-founder and CEO, have raised similar concerns. Cake Group, known for its cryptocurrency investment platform, is undergoing a legal battle initiated by its co-founder, Chua U-Zyn. Chua, also the CTO and shareholder, filed for the winding-up of the company, citing a shareholder dispute.
This application was filed with the High Court on December 1, as reported by The Straits Times, with a hearing scheduled for December 22.
Hosp announced in a blog post on November 14 that Cake DeFi, a part of Cake Group, would be reducing its workforce by 30%, impacting 52 employees in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. This decision was supposedly made without the consensus of Chua, who opposed the layoffs and criticized the lack of transparency and clear intention behind the move.
Responding to the legal challenge, Hosp claimed that Cake Group is financially stable and solvent, with ongoing business operations and assets exceeding liabilities. He emphasized that the winding-up application is based on internal disagreements rather than financial incapacity.
The Shabby Past
Cake founder Julian Hosp (LinkedIn) is a notorious crypto entrepreneur and speaker. He craves being in the spotlight and being admired. However, in all his published resumes and biographies on LinkedIn, Hosp conceals a dark part of his past – working for MLM scheme Lyoness.
Hosp comes from the MLM field and has worked for the infamous Lyoness MLM scheme, where he was one of the top leaders with 25,000 people in his downline. Victims brought numerous criminal charges against Lyoness, prosecutors in different jurisdictions investigated, and penalties and bans were issued.
