News

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)

Belgian victims of a scam attack Belgian justice 

• LE SOIR.be / François Remy / November 21, 2023

(This article was published by the Belgian daily 'Le Soir' (Brussels), you will find our translation below).

https://be-crypto.lesoir.be/2023/11/21/des-victimes-belges-dune-arnaque-affrontent-la-justice-belge/

Members of the Vitae crypto network have been fighting tirelessly for two years with the Belgian state. They still harbor the hope of recovering their digital assets “wrongfully frozen by the authorities”.

Recent events have once again tested the patience of the “Vitaers”, these thousands of members of the Vitae social network which promised prosperity for all humanity but which was unexpectedly stopped by Belgian justice in June 2021.

For the record, the federal judicial police had at the time, with the help of Europol, blocked access to the Vitae.co plattorm and the Vitaetoken.io site, seizing more than 2.6 million euros in cash. , cryptos and luxury vehicles. The authorities then believed they were dismantling an international criminal 

organization hidden behind a limited company established in the “Crypto Valley” in Switzerland but actually headed by Antwerp. Since this raid, there has been no further news regarding the progress of the investigation, radio silence from the federal prosecutor's office and not the shadow of a trial.

A particularity of this case is that the majority of Vitae users do not consider themselves victims of a global crypto scam but claim to have been robbed by the Belgian state. Deprived of their accounts, and at the same time of their digital assets, they watched, helplessly, the collapse of the price of the 

VITAE token which, before the intervention of the authorities, remunerated the shares, likes and other interactions of 223,000 members of the platform still under testing.

Unusual case: unconscious victims or unfair judgments?

Some 20,000 people from this global community immediately initiated the protest. The Vitaers had submitted their argument to the Elegis law firm in order to confirm its legal validity. An Elegis lawyer specializing in financial criminal law therefore attacked the Belgian authorities, requesting the liaing 

of the investigation and subpoenaing the State to demand the reopening of the Vitae network and the unblocking of crypto wallets. But above all to claim compensation from its clients, presenting them as de facto victims of an unfair legal procedure.

A series of court decisions resulted in the wholesale refusal of the various requests in 2022. Refusal against which the lawyer appealed. Last February, the Antwerp Court of Appeal adopted the same abtude, refusing to put the platform back online because, in essence, the risk of criminal activities 

remains too great to be tolerated. The Vitaers are certainly not giving up on the matter. The legal team continues to be involved in the criminal case, ready to take further strategic action in due course in this astonishing case.

In this mysterious Vitae scam appeared a bank lawyer boss, allegedly a Harvard graduate and former legal director at Credit Suisse, a technical director specializing in IT who worked in ministerial offices, tens of thousands of people mobilizing against the Belgian justice.

If Vitae did indeed constitute a pyramid fraud, the Belgian authorities would have let victims join while an investigation was carried out. If the crypto network was not based on a Ponzi scheme, the freezing of assets would not have legal grounds...

Necessary financial contribution 

Judicial uncertainty persists. Contacted by us, neither the lawyer of people who consider themselves truly wronged in Belgium nor the lawyer of the “Vitaers”, including some 350 Belgian residents, have yet provided additional information. Especially since it seems that no complaint has been filed against this platform, which has until now been active in dozens of countries.

“We are not aware of any convincing evidence against the founders of Vitae. This platform is a unique concept of alternative social media, defending freedom of expression, protecting personal data, without advertising but above all with an original remuneration model for its participants. As a result of the closure of Vitae, thousands of people lost their income and humanitarian actions in the Philippines, Vietnam and Venezuela were brutally stopped,” argues a Vitaer aonymously.

Not to mention that while disputes take time, the procedures obviously require money. Legal costs, lawyer fees, hours of preparatory work, the undertaking seems as laborious as it is expensive. On this subject, Be-Crypto Le Soir noted the creation in June of a non-profit Antwerp association with the unequivocal name of “Justice for the Vitae Members” (or for short “JuViMe”).

The structure's main social objective is crowdfunding, the collection of funds in Belgium and abroad, to finance collective legal action against... the Belgian judicial authorities. An objective that JuViMe ensures to pursue “by all means”, as stipulated in the act of constitution, namely to initate all necessary legal initiatives before the Belgian and foreign courts and tribunals to “recover the damages suffered by the members”.

The paradox of injustice

More recently, at the investigation of a former employee of Vitae AG turning against management for unpaid wages, the Swiss-based company found itself in bankruptcy proceedings. Ironically, the curator finds himself unable to access the assets since they were seized as part of the investigation.

“Each obstacle encountered only ignites our passion to discover the truth”, declared the company in a press release, daring to compare its legal setbacks and “the timeless struggle of David against Goliath”, while thanking its community for his unwavering support.