Prodeum
Prodeum was a cryptocurrency startup with ties to Lithuania that is known for potentially the most audacious rugpull ever. According to its whitepaper[1], Prodeum had had enough with the the world's archaic ways and stagnant development towards price look-ups (PLUs) and decided it was time team up with the dinosaurs at the International Federation for Produce Standards (IFPS) and revolutionize the fruit and vegetable industry with blockchain technology. The project was founded by four individuals going by the names of Petar Jandric, Darius Rugevicius (kek), Vytaustas Kaseta and Rokas Vedluga.
"Soon, consumers around the world will be able to scan any aPLU code with their phones and instantly receive detailed history behind their food."
Initial Coin Offering
On January 28, 2018, with absolutely no red flags or questions raised about the projects legitimacy and backed by an army of vegans and hippies (and a roadmap), investors began buying up the offered Prodium Investor Incentive Token (PIIT), which would later be exchanged for the native Prodeum (PRDM) token.
Suddenly, Prodeum's website vanished, and replaced with possibly the greatest stage bow the world had ever seen.
Aftermath
By Monday, January 29, Prodeum's Medium posts and Twitter page had vanished. The LinkedIn profile for alleged founder Petar Jandric was gone. Allegations arose that the team had paid Fivver users to write its name on their bodies. And the money was definitely long gone, though the estimated purse varies in size depending on sources, from US$3000 to "millions".
A 4chan thread in /biz/ was found to have been made by one of the rugpullers, claiming they were "babyscams" and that he had only made $50,000,
In a since-deleted LinkedIn post, Rugevicius issued the following statement:
Yesterday I became a victim of an identity theft. My name was used as a tool to attract investments into a project that I have neither no relation with nor ever heard of it before, I want to send my condolences to every Investor that has participated in the project named Prodeum. I will do my best to find and bring the people behind this violent act to justice. This event one more time proves how fragile our industry is and how important it is to conduct a thorough due diligence process before making an investment decision.