Tezos controversy
In July 2017, the Tezos team wrapped up a successful Initial Coin Offering (ICO) that raised US$232 million worth of bitcoin and Ethereum, making it one of the world’s largest ever ICOs. It was a promising start for this ambitious blockchain platform, but since then Tezos has been mired in controversy.
The project is headed by husband-and-wife duo Arthur and Kathleen Breitman. In April 2018, the United States’ Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) fined Arthur Breitman $20,000 and suspended him from associating with broker-dealers for up to two years after he allegedly began developing and pitching Tezos while still working for Morgan Stanley.
However, the project has also been rocked by a significant legal dispute between the Breitmans and Johann Gevers, the former president of the Swiss-based Tezos Foundation, and a series of lawsuits launched by ICO participants. One class action lawsuit that claims the company violated US securities laws during the ICO is still set to go ahead.
As a result of all this drama, the launch of the Tezos network was significantly delayed. ICO participants didn’t even get access to the tokens they had purchased for almost a year, and once tokens were distributed many holders decided to sell straight away.
