Crypto Libertex co-founder Vyacheslav Taran, 53, was killed after his chopper inexplicably crashed in a tourist destination close to Monaco.
On November 25, in the afternoon, the vehicle plunged to the ground, killing a seasoned pilot and Mr. Taran, who had resided in Monaco for ten years.
In a statement, Libertex said: “It is with great regret that Libertex Group reveals the loss of its co-founder and chairman of the board of directors, Vyacheslav Taran, who passed away on Friday, 25 November 2022, following a helicopter crash en route to Monaco.
The Libertex Group’s board of directors and staff send the Taran family their deepest sympathies and sorrow.
He joins an expanding list of influential Russians close to Vladimir Putin who have passed away suddenly.
Oligarchs, millionaires, and executives from the energy, oil, banking, and shipping sectors have all passed away in these often-reported suicides.
However, three crypto founders have all passed away recently. Last week, Tiantian Kullander, 30, passed away “in his sleep,” while wealthy Nikolai Mushegian, 29, drowned on a beach in Puerto Rico.
The co-founder of the Hong Kong-based digital asset business Amber Group, Mr. Kullander, passed away on November 23 “unexpectedly,” according to the company.
Mr. Mushegian passed away just hours after tweeting that the CIA and Mossad, the national spy services of America and Israel, were planning to assassinate him.
There have been questions about Mr. Taran’s death regarding how the collision happened on a day with clear skies when they took off from Lausanne, Switzerland.
The giant of finance took off from the city on the shores of Lake Geneva with a 35-year-old professional pilot following an alleged last-minute cancellation by another passenger.
Around 2:00 pm, the Monacair EC130 single-engine light helicopter crashed into a slope close to the municipality of Eze, according to Monaco Life.
Investigators from the local government and Airbus, the company that made the helicopter, are looking into his passing.
The well-known magazine Hello Monaco’s publisher Olga Taran and Mr. Taran were married and had three children together.
The pair established the orphaned children’s assistance organisation Change One Life.
Libertex continued, “A well-known and highly regarded businessman, Taran was a real visionary, characterised as kind-hearted, polite, and modest by everyone who was lucky enough to meet him.
Taran was also committed to giving back to the community and was usually the first to offer assistance to anyone in need, especially youngsters.
More than words can say, the statement said, “Vyacheslav Taran will be missed.”
Turmoil in the Crypto Industry
After the swift collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, lender BlockFi Inc. declared bankruptcy. This makes it the latest company dealing in digital assets to go under.
In a statement released on Monday, BlockFi stated that it would use the Chapter 11 procedure to “focus on recovering all obligations owed to BlockFi by its counterparties, including FTX and associated corporate entities.” BlockFi also noted that recoveries would likely be delayed by FTX’s own bankruptcy. A business that files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy is still able to run while formulating a repayment strategy for its creditors.
BlockFi’s assets and liabilities are each listed as being worth between US$1 billion and US$10 billion in the petition, which was filed in New Jersey. The business stated in the statement that it is initiating a “internal strategy to drastically decrease spending, particularly employee costs,” and that it currently has around US$257 million in cash on hand.
The Jersey City, New Jersey-based firm earlier suspended withdrawals and declared it was investigating “all possibilities” with outside consultants, citing “a lack of information” over the situation of insolvent FTX and Alameda Research.
It became unclear to BlockFi where funding for a credit line from FTX U.S. and collateral on loans to Alameda, which included stock in Robinhood Markets Inc., came from after investigations into FTX by the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission over possible misuse of customer funds, according to a report by Bloomberg News earlier this month. The majority of BlockFi’s assets were still being relocated when FTX went down, despite the fact that BlockFi was still in the process of transferring its assets to FTX for safekeeping.
One of the company’s largest unsecured creditors, with a debt of US$275 million, is mentioned as FTX U.S. in the petition.
According to the petition, Ankura Trust Company, the company’s largest unsecured creditor, is due around US$729 million. According to BlockFi’s website, Ankura serves as a trustee for the cryptocurrency accounts that earn income.
“BlockFi’s Chapter 11 reorganisation shows considerable asset contagion risks connected with the crypto ecosystem, and, perhaps, weak risk management practises,” said Monsur Hussain, senior director of Financial Institutions at Fitch Ratings. He added that eight years after the collapse of the Mt. Gox Bitcoin exchange, the process of restructuring can be “notoriously protracted” and that creditors are still waiting to be reimbursed.
According to Eric Snyder, partner and head of the bankruptcy section at law firm Wilk Auslander, BlockFi’s bankruptcy is comparable to FTX’s. He said in an interview that many of the important creditors’ names were withheld in both files, which is unusual for bankruptcy filings. Snyder said that it will take some time to figure out how much money is due to creditors in total in each case.
Zac Prince and Flori Marquez established BlockFi in 2017. In the beginning, important Wall Street investors like Mike Novogratz and eventually Valar Ventures, a venture capital firm sponsored by Peter Thiel as well as Winklevoss Capital, among others, supported the company. When it started offering interest-bearing accounts with returns paid in Bitcoin and Ether in 2019, it caused a stir. Millions of dollars’ worth of deposits were made as soon as the programme went live.
According to its website, the business expanded throughout the pandemic years and had locations in New York, New Jersey, Singapore, Poland, and Argentina. In a March 2021 interview with Bloomberg, co-founder Prince stated that BlockFi was utilising the funds from a US$350 million investment round to enter new markets and finance new projects. Among the investors in that round were Bain Capital Ventures and Tiger Global.
BlockFi sought funding in June 2021 with a valuation of roughly US$1 billion, down from its initial valuation of US$3 billion in March 2021. Financial regulators also scrutinised the company’s interest-bearing accounts, and in February it reached a settlement with the SEC and six US states for $100 million in fines. With US$30 million due to it, the SEC is named as BlockFi’s fourth-largest creditor on the bankruptcy filing.
After suffering a US$80 million blow from the bad debt of cryptocurrency hedge fund Three Arrows Capital, which collapsed following the TerraUSD stablecoin wipeout in May, BlockFi collaborated with FTX U.S.
The company had significant exposure to the empire of companies founded by former FTX Chief Executive Officer Sam Bankman-Fried. The company received a US$400 million credit line from FTX U.S. in an agreement that also gave the company the option to acquire BlockFi through a bailout orchestrated by Bankman-Fried over the summer. BlockFi also had collateralized loans to Alameda Research, the trading firm co-founded by Bankman-Fried.
The company is the latest crypto firm to seek bankruptcy amid a prolonged slump in digital asset prices. Lenders Celsius Network LLC and Voyager Digital Holdings Inc. also filed for court protection this year.
BlockFi sold about US$239 million of its own cryptocurrency and warned almost 250 workers that they would lose their jobs in the run-up to its bankruptcy filing, court papers show.