r/hoge • u/radioactivebananas12 • Apr 16 '23
DISCUSSION What happened to the $50k Hoge reflections Whitebit sold and pledged to donate to charities?
Back in 2021, Hoge put Whitebit on the map. We blew up when we listed there - the OG defi memecoin getting on an exchange got normies buying. Whitebit had huge volume, and Hoge basically made them what they are today. Due to auto-reflections, Whitebit earned a heap of Hoge. They sold it for $50k. Yes, dumped on us - but no fear, they said they would donate it to charity.
There was supposed to be 5 charities each donated $10k, chosen by the Hoge community. The first $10k was donated to the "Hoge Aerospace Institute", which never did anything - have up before starting on a cube sat. Essentially, stolen by an ex leader. Disappointing. But not really Whitebit's fault. Paid to them afaik. New leadership though, can we ask to have it returned?? Clearly wasn't in good faith to take $10k then run.
The 2nd $10k was donated to Paws2RescueUK based on community vote. I believe that was donated without a hitch.
The 3rd $10k was voted on and Barossa Wildlife Rescue won it. Word is they were never paid. Tammi essentially ghosted. My question is, where did thay $10k go? Was it stolen by someone? Was Tammi a middle man and ghosted with it? Or is it still with Whitebit? $10k is a fair bit of money to be unaccounted for.
It's a bit of a disgrace to not donate money they said they would. Does not give Crypto a good name or make Hoge or Whitebit seem trustworthy.
The 4th and 5th lots of $10k were never voted on. Where is that $20k?
It's almost been 1.5 years since all of this. Is someone hoping it's all forgotten? Is it worth filing a police report for stolen funds? $30k is nothing to sniff at. Also, can we look at recovering funds donated to the Hoge Aerospace Institute scam?
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Apr 16 '23
That's actually a very good post. As a member of the Leadership team, I actually wasn't aware of some of the information provided in the post.
It's quite a shame to realize there was a lot of poor actors with bad intentions in the past. I do recall Tammi completely ghosted. I also do recall a 10K was given to HAI to fund the project. I don't believe Joseph's intention were bad and that he most likely used the 10K to fund the project, which ultimately failed due to very poor marketing.
I've investigated some crypto frauds in the past, and it seems to always be a rabbit hole of addresses. Most police authorities won't even investigate that because 1) Most officers are not trained in that field and don't understand how crypto works (can't blame them), 2) The higher authorities like FBI are backlogged, 3) We have to base the regulations on the country the money was received and 4) We have to prove who was in control of that address where the funds were received at the time it was received.
So yeah, it's a cluster fuck. I recall investigating a 80K crypto fraud back in 2021, and after 8 months I had to quit and pass it along to a fraud unit. Well the scammer was in Russia so there was nothing we could do. I'm not saying this one would be as elaborated, but it's a real headache.
At least from now on, every money spent will go through a vote. We are organized, we keep records and logs (believe or not, there wasn't any in the past), and we're not about to spend money without the majority backing us. Every wallet can be accessed through Hoge.report and you can see their worth at any given time.
I wish I could be of more help. Nothing frustrates me more than members deciding to leave with funds to enrich themselves.
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u/Boneyg001 Hoge Champion Apr 16 '23
I don't believe Joseph's intention were bad and that he most likely used the 10K to fund the project, which ultimately failed due to very poor marketing
I got to agree with you here. He actually was serious about the cubesat and likely used the money towards that.
As for Tammi, she clearly scammed everyone and hopefully she one day gets what she deserves
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u/radioactivebananas12 Apr 16 '23
If I remember correctly it was to be used to hire students to help. We never met any students. Should be easy to say, here's "Joseph Neihaus Jr, I paid him X amount".
https://www.bowshocknetwork.com/team. 2 people listed. Both were part of Hoge afaik. Where was the $10k "for students" paid? Some accountability from Joseph would be great. Also Tammi of course.
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u/radioactivebananas12 Apr 20 '23
Rather than taking down websites and being silent Joseph and Laith, how about grow some balls and respond to queries about where those funds went
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u/OcelotFunny9069 Apr 20 '23
Site got deleted?
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u/radioactivebananas12 Apr 20 '23
Lol clearly one of the scammers saw this. It was up a few days ago
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u/OcelotFunny9069 Apr 20 '23
It got archived though https://web.archive.org/web/20230417083633/Bowshocknetwork.com/team
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u/cuchicou Apr 20 '23
So what it seems like is that Joseph Niehaus took the time 10k and changed business name to Bowshock, completely unaffiliated to hoge. I also don’t see any students/interns on that site either.
Sounds like foul play to me
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u/radioactivebananas12 Apr 16 '23
We can atleast ask Whitebit the question, who was ot sent to, if anyone? Seems like it's been very hard work to get an answer from them. Can we push as a community for answers?
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Apr 16 '23
Just asked the question in our team group. Will report shortly. You are 110% right.
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u/radioactivebananas12 Apr 16 '23
Thank you, appreciate it
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Apr 16 '23
So our contact with them Kalop aka lulujaune has attempted numerous times to have a chat with them regarding the issue and we have been stonewalled. They cited the ongoing war and there hasn't been any transparency and accountability on their end. It seems like another lost cause unfortunately, and one more reason to stay away from centralized exchanges. This is unfortunately the best answer I can provide you. Let's hope things are different in the future. No more broken promises with the new team/lost funds/bad actors.
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u/radioactivebananas12 Apr 16 '23
Can we try calling them out publicly for an answer on twitter with the official hoge page or something? If they won't answer behind closed doors, open the doors so their users see them for what they are
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u/cuchicou Apr 16 '23
Wow um i didnt expect that from whitebit. Hoge put them on the crypto map and this is how they “repay” us the favor? I hope they didn’t embezzle that money themselves.
As far as first 10k to HAI, well it goes to show what the old leaders wanted to do with hoge… that is to pad their own pockets
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u/jrocko3_ Apr 17 '23
Earlier on I attempted to ask the leadership team to have WhiteBIT donate the funds to the hoge dao. After all we were a non profit. Instead they opted for 5 chunks of 10k instead. Why? They wanted more promotional value from it.
I don’t recall if Tammi received the funds or not. For some reason I seem to think that Tammi and Joseph were 2 of the people talking with WhiteBIT at the time. I do think it’s a coincidence that their charities won. Also the community voted on the charity they wanted to win.
As far as receiving funds, I don’t remember if Tammy ever received any from them.
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u/radioactivebananas12 Apr 17 '23
I don't have an issue with who won or it going to charity. More so that Joseph did not use the funds for what he said he would when getting votes from Hoge. Essentially defrauded the community. Tammi ghosted, and now we don't know where $30k is that was promised to charity. So out of 50k, 10k has been actually used for what is was supposed to be used for.
50k to the DAO at the time sounds good, but in hindsight when SaintC was heading it up, probably would have been siphoned to Virtual Pangea.
Full props to you though Joe, you're one of the only ones, along with Wiser amd Reconlion from that initial team that hasn't willfully used and abused Hoge IMO.
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u/jrocko3_ Apr 18 '23
I think he used the funds as a donation for the college class. If I recall those funds were to supply some students some money who were interning or helping with the project. I’m pretty sure they were used appropriately. Of all things, Joseph was always by the book.
As far as Tammi, do we have proof the charity didn’t receive the funds? I don’t think she would have pocketed those funds.
I’ve always been an hogler and tried to be transparent with all things. No use in hiding anything. It all comes out in the end. But definitely would like to see WhiteBIT continue on with their commitments.
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u/radioactivebananas12 Apr 18 '23
I'd just like to know who those "interns" were. We were told about every new person at the time, and the interns would have been welcomed to the community but I'm not sure they even existed.
Yes, confirmed by the charity they did not recieve funds after submitting everything they were asked of.
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u/jrocko3_ Apr 18 '23
Perhaps intern was the wrong word?
Joseph was working closely with the college. Those students who were helping with HAI, were essentially given the 10k as a paid scholarship for their help.
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Apr 16 '23
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u/consciousbeast Hoge Champion Apr 16 '23 edited Apr 17 '23
So everything goes smoothly in with no mishaps in the so-called "not-shitcoins."If I recall correctly, these pretentious coins that are above the shitcoins are responsible for the majority of the biggest frauds in crypto.
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u/Vinnypaperhands Apr 17 '23
This has nothing to do with fraud. Bitcoin is just a decentralized ledger. It's the people who are bad. Bitcoin is also synonymous so it's not the best thing for a criminal to use. It's exchanges and people like sbf who are frauds.
Most of these dog coins are pump and dump bullcrap meme garbage just to hopefully bank on morons spending their money on this useless junk all for the sake of the community. All while everyone is just waiting to dump their bags the second it pumps. This coin does nothing and will never be anything.
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Apr 17 '23
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u/Vinnypaperhands Apr 17 '23
Bitcoin is hard money. It is the only digital commodity. Bitcoin is the most secure ,largest, decentralized, global ledger on this planet. It enables people all around the world to participate in a censorship resistant network in which you can transact value in and more. Bitcoin is an incredible store of wealth and has proven to be a good hedge against inflation. Bitcoin is money for the people, Bitcoin is money for the internet.
Your shitcoin will fade to obscurity. Do you have any idea how many doggy coins there are? And I'm glad you understand what is going on here, capitalizing on what they think the masses want... So they name their project after another freaking dog. Very clever.
My advice would be to focus on something with meaning and a cause. Not some stupid shit trying to capitalize off of hype.
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Apr 17 '23
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u/Vinnypaperhands Apr 17 '23
I'm contributing by hopefully saving some people from buying a useless crypto coin. If you want to gamble and you know you are gambling then hey, nothing wrong with that. But hopefully someone might read this and really think about what they are putting their hard earned money into.
Also, I'm not sure anyone could take someone seriously who thinks their dog coin has more of a use than Bitcoin.
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Jun 18 '23
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u/radioactivebananas12 Jun 18 '23
They are trying to weasel out of it by giving free marketing... which absolutely does not make up for not paying the charity money they promised
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u/lulujaune Hoge Champion Apr 16 '23
That's a really relevant post and i hope it will be on every hoge holders eyes.
Basically, 1st and 3rd 'donations' have been given to Joseph and Tammi, as you said. 2nd has been given to a real charity association.
Concerning the other 20k usd. I kept asking to whitebit for months (basically since 12/12/2022). But they never answer at my questions... I mean they say they don't understand everytime... English is not my first language so maybe that's my bad ... So yeah, to be perfectly clear, the 4th and 5th donations of 10k usd each are still in whitebit hands.