A major hedge fund that recruited a number of investors in the failed Telegram Open Network (TON) blockchain and crypto initiative is offering its investors just 21% of their stakes as a refund after the project collapsed, said a new report.
Per Forbes Russia, ATON, a fund who once promised that Telegram’s TON and its Gram token would become a rival to the likes of MasterCard, has told investors that they will not be receiving the 72% reimbursements that Telegram has previously promised.
However, the report also added that rather than make direct investments on the behalf of individuals, ATON instead sold securities based on TON’s Gram tokens. The company told the media outlet that the “risks associated with the investment” had been included in the terms of sale.
The media outlet quoted an investor named Igor Didenko as stating that he was offered the option of either accepting a 21% reimbursement now, or waiting a year before he could get a 30% payback.
Didenko stated,
“The negotiation process [with ATON] has not yet yielded any results. I haven’t received an explanation that I’m satisfied with either.”
The same media outlet stated that other, rival funds have offered 70% returns now, with small charges for legal costs – or 120% refunds in a year’s time.
Telegram has offered 110% paybacks to investors who are prepared to wait until April 2021 for their money.
However, ATON stated,
“Our policy is to sell [high-risk] products only to qualified customers and always warn them of the risks involved. Investments in the fund were aware that there was a high level of risk (with losses of up to 100% of invested funds). This was explicitly stated in the fund’s documentation.”
__
Learn more:
Russian TON Investors Decry UK Firm’s ‘c. USD 1.5m Commission Fee’
Telegram Chief Durov Says He Has Already Repaid Investors USD 1.2 Bn
