The primary company behind PlatinCoin is PLC Group AG, registered in Switzerland. However, there are several subsidiary or ‘independent’ organisations that bear the same name, and that have connections to the PlatinCoin project. The incorporations are as follows:

PLC GROUP AG SWITZERLAND, founded 28/12/2016. Registered at Baarerstrasse 14, 6300 Zug, Switzerland. Registered capital: 100,000CHF

CEO and main shareholder: Alex Reinhardt

PLATIN GENESIS ASIA LTD, registered March 2019, previously AMATECH LTD, registered in February 2019. Registered at UNIT 2512, 25/F, LANGHAM PLACE OFFICE TOWER, 8 ARGYLE STREET, MONGKOK, HONG KONG. Registered capital: undisclosed.

PLC GROUP AG DOO SLOVENIA, incorporated 25/07/2018. Registered directly under PLC Group AG, and at Letaliska Cesta 33E, 1000 Ljubljana. Registered capital: 10,000EUR.

Director and sole shareholder: Alex Reinhardt

PLATIN GENESIS DMCC, not present on Dubai Companies Register. Located at JUMEIRAH LAKE TOWERS SWISS TOWER UNIT NO 1004-44 DUBAI, UAE. Registered capital: not registered.

It is worth noting that these are all faceless and generic buildings with no company identification present.

There is a very confusing organisation (perhaps deliberately) when we examine the various sections of the PLC Group. At the base of the website, the Hong Kong address is mentioned. It is also listed in the Privacy Policy, and the website’s Terms and Conditions. However, this is where the association ends.

In the ‘PlatinPaper’ (White Paper) the official “Overview Company Structure” lists only PLC Group AG, as the technological and development company, and Platin Genesis Dubai as the marketing and sales agency. There is no reference to the offices located in Slovenia or Hong Kong.

In any case, PLC Group AG and its subsidiaries are very young companies that have had no prior endeavours and have been incorporated for the sole purpose of this project. As previously stated, BaFin have thrown up a red flag against the incorporation of the parent company and have warned investors to stay away from them.

One of the only tangible names that can be associated with the PlatinCoin project, or with PLC Group AG, is Alex Reinhardt. His name is present on every register and his is the face of the project at every turn. He’s at the top of PLC Group AG, currently occupying the CEO position, and having a hand in each subsidiary company.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-reinhardt-87aa77182/

His LinkedIn profile currently has no association with PlatinCoin or PLC Group AG, and instead lists only a CEO position at ELVN, his company founded to develop a “Crypto Currency Messenger” platform. There is a second LinkedIn profile, connected to Reinhardt’s profile on Crunchbase, but this is equally as misinformed: https://www.linkedin.com/in/reinhardtalex/.

Reinhardt was previously known as a result of his association with SwissCoin, having been ranked very highly in the affiliate base and acting as a key promoter for the cryptocurrency team. However, SwissCoin was/is a clear Ponzi scheme that received direct regulatory warnings from Switzerland, Nigeria and Germany, before its management structure fell apart.

Today, SwissCoin’s value is almost nil, the project is dead and worthless and social media has been abandoned. The project was regarded as being a “near-identical scam to OneCoin” in its premise and operations.

Reinhardt ceased his association with SwissCoin around January 2017, only a mere month after PLC Group AG was founded.

As previously stated, there is little-to-no information available regarding the structure of PLC Group AG, aside from the position of Alex Reinhardt. However, another name that was uncovered throughout our investigation was Maxim Bederov, listed as CFO and/or a board member of PLC Group AG, before his subsequent resignation in October 2018.

https://es.linkedin.com/in/maxim-bederov

As you can see from his LinkedIn profile, Bederov had no public ties to the project and was actually listed as self-employed during the windows of operation at PLC Group AG.

Another name listed on a registration document was Orlando Vecellio:  https://ch.linkedin.com/in/orlando-vecellio-a87a275b

Vecellio is officially stated as a ‘Board Member’ and does bear recognition of this on his LinkedIn profile, but before that he was simply a ‘sales partner’ for Platinum Genesis DMCC. There is no public recognition of this man from the company itself.

On LinkedIn – and tied to the company profile – is a mystery, private account that bears the job title: “President of PLC Group AG”. We are unfortunately unable to see exactly who this profile belongs to:

An article from the website TouchJustice makes strong allegations regarding PLC Group AG’s potential ties to cybercriminals involved in extortion and investment fraud. This article draws an image of the company structure and suggests that the hidden owner and project sponsor is one Ilan Tzorya (Tzroya), a Bulgarian-Israeli “Entrepreneur” slammed online in many outlets for crimes such as blackmail, fraud, identity theft and embezzlement.

While this article isn’t endorsed by any governing body, it makes a supported case to back up the allegations it aims at PLC Group AG, Ilan Tzorya, and Alex Reinhardt. If accurate, this is a damning red flag for the project and for the incorporations behind it.

The only tangible result of this project so far are the “Secure Boxes” that PLC Group AG have manufactured for its users. There are claims this is ‘patented’ but we could find no evidence of this. There is no sign of further development, and certainly no indication of proper allocation and regulation of funds accrued from the project.

The PlatinCoin project was built as a pyramid scheme, to ensure a deep and consistent spread among users. These users, or ‘investors’ will sign up to the project, and try and sell the product to their friends, who sell it to their friends, and so on. Pyramid schemes are unsustainable and recognised by many regulatory bodies as being illegal or bearing high risks at the very least.

The first key indicator of a pyramid scheme is the need to pay to join. PlatinCoin, at its highest level, charges thousands of dollars for a user to integrate at the ‘best tier’ they offer. Another indicator of a pyramid scheme is the offering of ‘goods or services’ that have little, or doubtful value. In this case, it’s the PlatinCoin token. This is a cryptocurrency that makes no sense and serves no purpose. It has no utility but is the basis of the project.

Another key indicator – and one that PlatinCoin exhibits – is the promise of ‘guaranteed income’.

PlatinCoin boasts state of the art data centres that users will rent in order to ‘mint’ the PLC tokens. However, there’s no indication of these centres existing. In fact, the company has shown very little in the way of innovation, development or advancement since their inception.

Coincidentally, even their whitepaper bears evidence of a pre-warning that you won’t benefit from their platform:

“First item of contract: Platin Genesis is an innovative company that informs its community, for free, of how to work with the latest FinTech Technology.”

And then further down, it states:

“Platin Genesis does not guarantee that training materials or other information are complete, correct or reliable.”

The majority of PLC’s trades are done over P2PB2B, a little-known exchange, despite being registered to trade on several others. However, one of these exchanges is the infamous Yobit exchange, which has been in the news many times for alleged scamming or fraudulent behaviour.

On P2PB2B there has been some strange behaviour, such as sales of 33USD per PLC, jumping to 3USD per PLC in the next transaction. Although CoinMarketCap lists an all-time high of almost 35USD (as of June 14th 2019), the majority of transactions go through with a value of cents, not even breaking the 1USD mark. This could be a key indicator of wash trading and is a remarkable red flag.

As this review indicates, there are many red flags associated with PLC Group AG and PlatinCoin. There are countless articles online that determine this to be a Ponzi or a Pyramid Scheme, and the evidence is certainly present in overwhelming amounts. The company has no published team structure, no financial regulation or control, and to-date it remains unaudited.

At ICA, we’re committed to warning potential investors of the risks associated with organisations and projects that bear many red flags, such as PlatinCoin.