The Cyprus-based Neo &Bee Company has terminated operation some time before its CEO Danny Brewster went missing. Some customers accuse him for fraudulence, but Mr. Brewster names personal reasons behind his hasty disappearance.
Neo & Bee has won the market with a nasty advertising campaign, offering business wallets and Bee cards with corresponding terminals and APIs earlier this year. Ambitious business has been stopped by the end of March, while the flow of transactions was not even self-sufficient.
However, the service has re-launched on April 4th at 5:00 PM EST some questions remain unanswered.
Personal Reasons
Danny Brewster does not consider his move as fleeing from the country. He believes it was a reasonable reaction on threats he has received. The temporary absence will end once the matter will be cleared by the local police.Twitter sources suggest, however, that "Danny doesn't speak Greek and he most likely called either UK embassy or UK police, not the Cyprus police".
Mr. Brewster explains:
“I left Cyprus on a short-term temporary basis. I haven't shipped anything from Cyprus and I certainly haven't run away with company or people's money or Bitcoins.”
He is also afraid that the blackmailer is not joking, threatening the family of the businessman:
“I received direct threats targeted directly at my daughter. They have been reported to the relevant authorities.”
Leaving the country for a while is one of the methods to avoid potential danger:
“Once those threats were made I took the advice to remain outside of Cyprus and remove contact with anyone that could be responsible for the threats. This included not speaking with members of staff that could be responsible.”
Temporary Conditions
The Neo &Bee Company cannot be called huge as the staff consists of 11 people. 15 new specialists have been recently employed to widen the branches and establish a call-center.
Some of them claim that they have not been paid for March and even invested personal assets in the development of the company. Most of them have resigned and the central office has been abandoned.
In addition local police received to statements from customers, who provided the company with 20 000 and 15 000 euros respectively, but have not received their Bitcoins.
On the contrary, the police office has not registered any complaints from Danny Brewster to start any investigation of the threats.
Interference of Havelock Investments
Havelock Investments also lacks any particular information, but made the decision to stop trading. According to them the re-launch of the service was possible due to instructions from Neo & Bee.
While the financial status of the company remains unknown, Mr. Brewster insisted:
“Every single Bitcoin raised and spent is accounted for, any claims of embezzlement are nothing but empty claims with no foundation.”
He has also mentioned the notorious Japan-based exchanger Mt.Gox:
“UKYO [the operator of BitFunder] also owes me an additional 260BTC separately from the 1,420BTC. I also have 369.8BTC of my own Bitcoin stuck with Mt.Gox that would have been given to the company to settle all creditors and continue operations whilst more capital was raised. Having funds on Mt. Gox was a personal risk that I assumed and no company funds were ever held on there.”
However, the investigation has to be continued to prove a deeper connection between the present condition of Neo &Bee and Mt.Gox service. Cointelegraph is going to follow the situation and report on time.