Controversial live streamer Paul ‘ICE POSEIDON‘ Denino has denied running a ‘Ponzi’ scheme, during a clip of him explaining his business model and describing what sounds remarkably like a Ponzi scheme.
ICE POSEIDON shot to popularity as an ‘IRL’ (In Real Life) streamer on both Twitch and YouTube (he moved to YouTube after being banned from Twitch), and now runs the ‘Cx’ streaming network.
His next project is a website called ‘scuffed.com’, which currently simply reads ‘coming soon’ with clips from Denino’s live stream in the background. But, the funding for this website has raised suspicions.
A YouTube video titled “Ice Poseidon Admits to Running A PONZI SCHEME”, has racked up over half a million views in 24 hours, after being shared to popular subreddit r/Videos.
The clip, taken from an ICE POSEIDON broadcast, shows the streamer explaining his plan to raise capital for scuffed.com, and viewers have likened it to the fraudulent investment scheme made famous by Charles Ponzi.
“For the investors to make their money back, we grow the company to a certain point, then we have other investors come in, they invest their money as well. Then when we get more than $2 million invested, the other investors will get their $2 million back.”
Catching himself, POSEIDON states that he explained it badly, and denies that it is a Ponzi scheme, but later restates “they [investors] are paid back by either equity that’s not diluted, or they just get their money back because more investors have invested money.”
Other streamers have commented on what appears to be an admission of a Ponzi scheme, including popular Twitch streamer Steven ‘Destiny‘ Bonell, who said “he’s literally describing a Ponzi scheme”.
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The video made it to the very front page of Reddit, and although Denino hasn’t attempted to explain further himself, he shared a video from YouTuber Daniel ‘KEEMSTAR‘ Keem – who says it is not a Ponzi scheme.
However, KEEMSTAR does not address Denino’s specific comments where he explicitly stated that investors would be repaid with money from new investors.
Keem is alot better at explaining shit than I am. There’s seems to be some confusion so hopefully this video explains it a lot better than I did. https://t.co/27Ka5Z1DyY
— Ice_Poseidon (@REALIcePoseidon) February 26, 2019
Denino has grown a large loyal following, both personally and with other streamers on the ‘Cx’ network. Scuffed.com still appears to be in development and is “coming soon” – provided the investment strategy is not in fact a fraudulent pyramid scheme.
What is a Ponzi scheme?
Also known as a pyramid scheme, a Ponzi scheme is a form of investment fraud, where initial investors are repaid with the money from new investors, while the ‘company’ itself actually makes no money.
Investors are often promised incredibly high returns in a short period of time, and throughout, the orchestrator of the scheme will siphon off and pocket some of the investment capital.
