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For the Ormeus Global fraud, the SEC has filed lawsuits against John Barksdale and his sister, JonAtina “Tina” Barksdale. Using Ormeus Global’s ORME cryptocurrency, the regulator claims the Barkdales stole over $124 million. In June of this year, we investigated and reported on Ormeus Global’s stock fraud. The Barkdales committed fraud between June 2017 and April 2018, according to the SEC’s complaint.
Defendants John and Tina Barksdale defrauded Ormeus Global, S.A. by offering and selling subscription packages containing unregistered securities. Starting in June of this year, there will also be a pause… The Ormeus Coin digital asset was fraudulently offered and sold by the defendants as an unregistered security.
In spite of the fact that they should have been, neither subscription packages nor Ormeus Coin were ever registered as securities with the Commission. As a former resident of Thailand, John Barksdale is a US citizen. In a separate criminal case, he was taken into custody.
Barksdale is rumored to have been extradited back to the United States or to be in the process of doing so. US citizen Tina Barksdale lives in Hong Kong. She was John Barksdale’s sister; she was in charge of Ormeus Global and Ormeus Coin’s operations. Among her responsibilities at Ormeus’ Hong Kong office were coordinating the company’s marketing videos, which it used to portray itself as a legitimate business, and overseeing the bank accounts.
John Barksdale was Ormeus Global’s public face. I’d never heard of Tina Barksdale before today’s SEC hearings. Trading bots were Ormeus Global’s original Ponzi scheme. Ormeus Global’s “B2x89” bot promised a return on investment of 160 percent. … (Ormeus Global’s) trading system was not a proven system and was still in development for months after Ormeus Global began selling subscription packages.
Because of this, Ormeus Global started using crypto mining, a common Ponzi scheme, as a way to raise funds. Defendants claimed that Ormeus Coin’s value would be supported by holding other digital assets that had been mined as part of the company’s digital asset mining business.”ORV,” or ” Ormeus Reserve Vault is a digital asset wallet that will hold 40% of the profits from digital asset mining to support the value of Ormeus Coin, making the Ormeus Global packages more appealing to investors.
While mining was done by Ormeus Global, it wasn’t nearly enough to support the Ponzi scheme. From February 2018 to January 2019, Ormeus Coin mined digital assets for just over a year. During that time, the total revenue generated by the operation was less than $3 million. Despite this, the defendants falsely claimed that the operation was bringing in $5.4 million to $8 million in revenue each month at various points. Defendants falsely claimed that Ormeus Coin had digital asset mining equipment worth $30 million, $35 million, and $250 million, when in reality, it had less than $1 million in operational equipment. The defendants had difficulty keeping their equipment running and breaking even.
Affiliates of Ormeus Global were told that mining proceeds “would be used to purchase additional digital asset mining equipment and technology.” That never happened. When Ormeus Global finished its mining operation, the company was in the red. Between March 5 and June 1, 2018, the value of a bitcoin fell by 35%, from $11,600 to $7,500. As of May 19th, 2018, the company hosting the digital asset mining equipment in Utah sent an email to the defendants detailing the operation’s mining revenue, expenses, and profits. ” Ormeus Coin generated less than $9,000 in revenue from the mining of digital assets over the preceding 42 days.
In light of the ongoing decline in the value of bitcoin, Ormeus Coin shut down its mining operations in New York and Utah on or around June 1, 2018. To date, there have been no public disclosures from the defendants or Ormeus Coin regarding the company’s mining success.
When Ormeus Coin’s mining equipment in Utah was reactivated on or around November 12, 2018. Ormeus Coin’s mining equipment suffered losses of about $115,000 between November 12th, 2018 and January 12th, 2019. Since January 2019, Ormeus Coin has been storing all of its unused mining equipment in Utah.
Investors were never made aware of any of this. Four months after the mining equipment was shut down, a whitepaper published by Ormeus Global stated that the company was confident in its findings. It is one of the largest digital asset mining operations in the world, with operations in North America. On ORV’s website, the Barksdales claimed to have a bitcoin wallet balance. An “unrelated third party” owned this wallet, which had no connection to Ormeus Global. ORV’s website shows a balance of over $190 million as of November 2021.
There were only a few thousand dollars’ worth of assets in the actual ORV digital asset wallets. In December 2021, the Barksdales learned of the SEC’s investigation into them and shut down their account on ORV’s website. A “roadshow” event held in Hong Kong in November 2017 was another deceptive marketing ploy. A $250 million mining equipment contract was signed by John Barksdale at the event.
A purchase was never made as a result of the contract’s non-binding nature. MLM Ponzi schemes are known for using wash trading to inflate the value of their products. Ormeus employees and officers were told by John Barksdale that he had a plan to increase the value of the Ormeus coin to $1 by buying and selling it. With the help of his sister, he was able to fulfill his promise.
Ormeus Coin was bought and sold directly from and to each other by the defendants and those they controlled at Ormeus Global during the days leading up to the Hong Kong roadshow. During the roadshow, Ormeus Coin reached a high of $5.30 on November 19, 2017. Ormeus Global sold $5.7 million worth of subscription packages during the week of the roadshow—more than double the sales of any prior week. Preceding a number of Ormeus Global events held across Europe in 2018, ORME wash trading was once again utilized.
Ormeus Cash (OMC) and the Ormeus Ecosystem would be added to the Ponzi scheme over time (ECO). In our 2018 IQ Chain review, we discussed OMC’s introduction. As a part of Ormeus Global, the Ormeus Ecosystem was the final product. In our recent review of KIWISmart, it was mentioned. Ex-Ormeus Global executives have launched KIWISmart, a cloned Ponzi scheme.
The Barksdales are accused by the SEC of soliciting $124 million from more than 20,000 Ormeus Global investors between 2017 and 2021. As an additional bonus to the Ponzi scheme payouts, multi-million dollar investor funds have gone to the defendants’ personal expenses like travel and real estate purchases.
The SEC has filed a lawsuit alleging three types of violations of the Securities and Exchange Act, all of which are grounds for relief. A permanent injunction is also sought, along with prejudgment interest, in addition to a civil penalty.
We’ll keep you updated as we keep an eye on the situation. The Ormeus Global SEC case is now available on Pacer as of March 9th, 2022.
