Vitae's goal
Attention
WEAREVITAE.ORG IS A WEBSITE PROVIDING OFFICIAL COMMUNICATION AND INFORMATION
BY THE LAWYER WHO DEFEND THE INTERESTS OF MEMBERS OF THE VITAE COMMUNITY.
Belga, press agency
Members of social media platform Vitae ask for clarity about judicial investigation - Brussels, June 19, 2024
Three years after the social media platform Vitae.co was taken offline on the orders of a Belgian investigating judge, a group of former members of the platform have many questions about the judicial investigation.
According to the federal public prosecutor’s office, a ‘Ponzi and pyramid fraud’ type of scam was hidden behind the platform and the associated cryptocurrency, but the members, who have gathered in the Wearevitae organization, do not believe this.
Vitae introduced itself at the time as a new social media platform based on blockchain technology, but which, according to former journalist and spokesperson for Wearevitae Erik Bruyland, distinguished itself in several areas from existing social media: “It was a European alternative to the major US and Chinese platforms, which did not sell users’ personal data; without advertising and with an attractive earnings and rewards mechanism.”
All that disappeared when the platform was taken offline on June 22, 2021, much to the dismay of Wearevitae’s 20,000 members.
“We have been asking for clarity from the court for years,” Bruyland continues. “There are claims that Vitae was a pyramid scheme, but no evidence has been provided yet. If there was any tampering, it would all be reflected in the source code of the Vitae platform, but that was three years later still not analyzed.”
The members of Wearevitae also find it remarkable that neither the Belgian Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA), nor its American counterpart, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, or the Swiss financial regulator FINMA ever felt it necessary to take action against Vitae.
“Ultimately, we think that the Belgian justice thought that it had discovered a major international fraud here, but came to the conclusion that it was terribly mistaken and is now letting the case die a quiet death,” concludes Erik Bruyland.
Leden sociaal mediaplatform Vitae vragen duidelijkheid over gerechtelijk onderzoek (msn.com)
FAQs
Why was the Vitae platform taken offline by the Belgian authorities?
A press release dated June 24, 2021 from the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office (D1/010/21) states that the Vitae platform was taken offline two days earlier due to “suspected large-scale fraud” in “a Ponzi and pyramid fraud type file” and constitute “a suspected criminal organization”.
Two days before the official announcement by the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office and even during the first interrogations of the suspects on June 22, a number of newspapers already reported the closure of the Vitae platform on their websites. How and by whom was this information leaked to the press?
Was the normal procedure followed for taking it offline?
This is doubtful, since if the financial regulator – in Belgium this is FSMA – has questions or suspicions of “Ponzi and pyramid fraud”, possibly linked to an MLM (multi-level marketing) and/or cryptocurrency, a procedure is provided for this based on the law of 2 August 2002: the FSMA gives the company concerned one month to provide an explanation. The company may be placed on a list of “warnings” and “possible sanctions”.
However, Belgian legal authorities closed Vitae without warning. Even more so, after a secret investigation had been ongoing for one year. Vitae was a ‘start-up’ company, still in the testing and construction phase.
How many members had filed a complaint against Vitae for fraud before June 22, 2021?
Unless the Justice Department proves otherwise, not one of the 230,000 users in more than 100 countries.
The judicial machinery appears to have been set in motion in March 2020 as a result of an official report drawn up by a police officer of the Federal Judicial Police (FJP) in the city of Ghent. The same FJP officer, who initiated and initially led the investigation, asked ‘suspects’ – whom he had arrested through the investigating judge for membership of a “criminal organization” – to report to his brother’s law firm . A few days after June 22, 2021, the same law firm started recruiting “victims of the Vitae fraud” via its website and against payment of 220 euros +20% on recovered funds. Isn’t this a conflict of interest between a civil servant and private affairs of a relative?
What is the purpose of wearevitae.org?
On June 22, 2021, 230,000 members in more than 100 countries were stunned to find that their platform had been taken offline, without any warning or word of explanation from the Belgian authorities. Thousands of users protested against this (see ‘Testimonials’ section); almost 50,000 users demanded the reopening of the platform with a petition on the independent platform Change.org. In August, 20,000 users united in wearevitae.org to take legal action against the Belgian state. Wearevitae is completely separate from Vitae AG, also financially. Moreover, if the Belgian justice department comes up with hard evidence that ‘Vitae’ was a scam, weraevitae.org will turn against Vitae AG. But as far as we know, not one user has filed a complaint against Vitae AG and, after years of judicial investigation, we have not yet seen the beginning of evidence for “Ponzi and pyramid fraud”.
Was “Vitae” legal?
At the time the platform was taken offline in June 2021, Vitae was still in the construction or testing phase, but would open publicly to ‘free members’ in the fall of 2021. In this so-called beta phase, management sought legal advice and more than one million euros was spent on audits at reputed consultancy firms to get everything legally arranged. Due to the unclear regulations for crypto in Belgium, the company was transferred to the Swiss Crypto Valley in the canton of Zug in the course of 2019, precisely because of the clear legislation from the Swiss financial regulator FINMA. A new professional management team was appointed and Vitae AG was about to receive the Swiss VQF label and a non-action letter from FINMA when the platform was unexpectedly taken offline by the Belgian authorities. The US Securities and Exchanges Commission found no objections to the Vitae token.
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