Phoenix Community Capital is a cryptocurrency project and investment scheme, which was established in the year 2022 and within a few month, the project drew in approximately 8,000 investors, some of whom invested in tens of thousands of pounds.
The project was also liked to the UK Parliamentary Group called “All-party parliamentary groups (APPGs)” and was valued at $800m (£665m) before the end of 2020. The firm built its credibility by sponsoring an APPG — all-party parliamentary group during the parliamentary elections. One of the co-founder by name “Luke Sullivan”, was active as a speaker for APPG and on events hosted by MPs. The firm promoted itself based on these ties to the UK government, and also by publishing a blog post about how they “brought the Metaverse to the Palace of Westminster”.
However, it was reported by the Guardian that “Phoenix Community Capital had apparently disappeared, leaving some investors in fear of losing their money invested into the project. The firm vanished in September 2022, they took off their website from online and their portfolio accounts was inaccessible.
More so, it was gathered from the company’s Twitter account that the firm is now “under a new management, a company run by an individual called “Dan”,”. The new company has said that they have no obligation to make previous investors whole but that it would still try to make them some returns.
According to Guardian, on contacting the co-founder Sullivan, he said “he would respond if the Guardian flew to the Philippines to discuss it further. He criticized the Guardian for making “a number of factual errors” and said he was not being allowed an opportunity to “clarify the real facts”, and then said he could not respond to a further request for comment”.
Many investors are now counting their loss, as some of them said they have lost more than $100,000 each. One such investor is Alan Rogers, a former Premier League footballer who sunk around $50,000 into the rather Ponzi-looking scheme.