The actress Sophia Thomalla has come under fire for an advertising partnership with the blockchain project G999 of the former Karatbars chairman Josip Heit.
The German actress Sophia Thomalla has come under fire for an advertising appearance for the controversial blockchain project G999 of the former Karatbars chairman Josip Heit, according to a report in the Handelsblatt on January 3.
Thomalla advertises G999
The actress and Instagram influencer poses in an elaborately produced commercial for the G999 blockchain project by Josip Heits from Hamburg-based Gold Standard Banking Cooperation AG (GSB). Its credibility is under criticism because of Heit’s earlier involvement with the startup Karatbars as “Chairman of the Board”, with its allegedly gold-backed virtual currency Karatgold Coin investors lost millions .
G999 is described on the project website as a “peer-to-peer electronic cash system”, which aims to become a “solid global currency with fast payments, micro-fees, a new generation of communication and high transaction capacity”. According to the Handelsblatt, it is “unclear” what exactly is behind the project.
Heit describes his company GSB as „an international conglomerate based in the port of Hamburg.“ GSB only moved from Düsseldorf to Hamburg two years ago. Until 2018 the company was called GCC Gazella Corporate Capital GmbH, whose most important asset is said to have been a quarry in Croatia for a long time.
According to Handelsblatt, there is still a legal dispute between Karatbars company founders Harald Seiz and Josip Heit, and Seiz is planning a direct competition to G999 with the very similar-sounding blockchain project V999. That said, Seiz had come first with the start of G999.
According to Handelsblatt, Heit is said to have had intensive contact with the Romanian Alex Bodi, who has since been arrested for alleged mafia activities and forced prostitution in his home country. When asked, he threatened the Handelsblatt with lawsuits in the USA.
Meanwhile, Sophia Thomalla is clueless. She does not know this side of her new business partner, she said on request. Her lawyer wrote that she would not comment on matters „of which she has no knowledge and in which she was not nor is involved.“
Celebrities as draft horses for scams
Crypto fraudsters repeatedly employ celebrities as the draft horses to give their project the appearance of seriousness. Advertising with boxing star Floyd Mayweather and musician DJ Khaled for the ICO of the fraudulent crypto investment company Centra Tech caused a sensation in 2017 .