Cryptocurrencies are a risky business, but sometimes they are quite simply scams. This is the case of HyperVerse which collapsed after disappearing 1.3 billion dollars. In its period of operation (started in 2021), the company was captained by CEO Steven Reece Lewis, who seemed to be one of the greatest experts in the industry. However, the man seemed to have disappeared into thin air, but now he has been found and it turned out that it was actually him an actor paid $5,000 to play the part.
The HyperVerse project launched with a video featuring Reece Lewis along with messages of support from luminaries like Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and actor Chuck Norris (it appears these are scripts commissioned by Cameo and not actual endorsements).
The company stated that Reece Lewis he graduated from the University of Leeds and received a master's degree from Cambridge, sold a company to Adobe, launched an unnamed startup, worked at Goldman Sachs and beyond. When the investigation into HyperVerse began, Guardian Australia began contacting these institutions: none of them had heard of Reece Lewis.
Now, the man who posed as Reece Lewis has been found. His name is Stephen Harrison, an Englishman living in Thailand who said he was “shocked” to discover what HyperVerse had claimed about him.
He explains that he took the job while working as freelance presenter and commentator. Harrison said a friend of a friend approached him about an opportunity, and seeing that it was a simple presentation job, Harrison accepted.
The actor's words
“I was told that I was playing a role to represent the company and that many people do,” Harrison said. He initially admitted that he had some suspicions about the company, due to his lack of knowledge of cryptocurrencies, but his agent said that HyperVerse was legit and he accepted the job.
Harrison asked why he was asked to use a false name. “They said to me, 'Well, you know, you're an actor, you're playing the role that you're presenting to the world of work,' and my agent said, 'A lot of people do that in the world of work. It's perfectly normal.'
Harrison claims to had no control on the Twitter account in his name, nor on celebrity endorsements, nor that he kept tabs on HyperVerse's activities – it was just a sideline that netted him about $5,000 and a new suit used for filming.
When the Guardian Australia investigation began to shed light on the matter but failed to find out, a YouTuber named Jack Gamble was able to identify Harrison through an image search, and at that point (or so Harrison claims) the actor began to understand what he was for his image was used.
“I absolutely stayed shocked from what I've seen,” Harrison said. “I've never gone on the Internet to check out Steven Reece Lewis. I looked at YouTube from time to time when they put up the presentations, but other than that I remained detached from this role.”
“When I read about the character, I said to myself, 'Damn, they make me sound so educated…'. I have a high school diploma, but I'm certainly not at that level. They painted a good picture of me, but they never told me any of this.”
The actor then declares himself sorry for the victims of the scam and hopes that they can get back what they lost.
#HyperVerse #CEO #stole #billion #crypto #scam #exist #actor
