September 28, 2019

The MCT+ Platform exit scam from an Austrian couple

The founders of the cryptocurrency trading platform My Crypto Trade (MCT+) completed an exit scam by stealing users' funds from the Platform. The total amount stolen, according to minimal estimates, was 100 thousand euros in cryptocurrency. This was reported by one of the Platform's investors under the nickname tax79.

Being the moderator of MCT+ Discord chat for over a year and possessing almost complete information about the Platform and its development process, tax79 conducted its own investigation and established the identities of the founders of the project.

“Instead of marginal “hackers” from third world countries, they turned out to be quite successful members of society from one quiet prosperous country of Western Europe,” tax79 said.

Start


The MCT+ cryptocurrency trading platform was founded on May 28, 2018. The number of coins traded on it was about 130. As of January 2019, more than 5,000 users were registered on it.

The key features of the Platform were:

1. Direct exchange of one cryptocurrency for another (Altcoin A - Altcoin B).

2. The ability to exchange one cryptocurrency for several others at the same time (Altcoin A - Altcoin B / Altcoin B).

3. The possibility of accepting a trade order not only in full, but in part.

4. The ability to create private transactions, information about which will be known only to persons who received a specially formed link.

5. No fees for depositing and withdrawing funds from the Platform (there is only a network fee for withdrawing funds).

6. Lack of trading bots and fake trading volumes.

7. Anonymity.

8. High level of security, including the presence of two-factor authorization.

Here is one of the MCT+ promos:

Other features of the Platform can be found in white paper.

According to tax79, the Platform was fully operational, no major software failures were observed. The project over the course of the year was quite evolutionarily developed, new functionality was gradually introduced.

Since March 2019, part of the Platform's operating income began to be distributed among holders of the MCTP platform's native token. The MCTP coin began to perform in this case a peculiar function of shares.

Theft of user funds


On May 14, 2019, the users’ balances unexpectedly disappeared on the Platform - all Bitcoins and several other well-traded coins.

The official version of the incident was as follows: the main developer, he is one of the founders of the Project, allegedly left his laptop unattended in the coworking office for several hours. At the same time, sessions were opened on the laptop to the entire infrastructure of the Platform. One of the coworkers in the office took advantage of the situation and pulled coins from the Platform.

Below are the announcements of the founders of the Platform in Discord chat with a description of the incident:

At the end of May 2019, the main developer / founder announced that one of his family members fell ill and that he could no longer pay attention to the development of the Platform.

At the end of June 2019, the founders announced that the Platform is closing in 14 days and further development, possibly, will continue only after a year.

Exit scam investigation

“On July 2, 2019 I published my investigation, in which I indicated that the official version of what happened on May 14, to put it mildly, is not true and on blockchain transactions I proved that the main developer / founder simply stole funds from the Platform,” tax79 said.


According to tax79's investigation, the withdrawal of funds was made to a wallet owned by the founder of the Platform.

A few hours after the publication of the investigation, the MCT+ website - https://trade.mct.plus/ - became unavailable, all platform accounts on social networks were deleted, and the founders of the Platform disappeared in an unknown direction.

Founders Disclosure


As tax79 established, the founders of MCT+ turned out to be a married couple from Innsbruck, Austria - Andreas Kaltenhuber and Carina Fontan.

They are currently the founders of PushPanda.io - a small software development company.

Andreas Kaltenhuber is a programmer with over 20 years of experience. Previously organized several IT companies. He is a member of the local rich club "Seriously sexiest communication & Sports Club" (SSCSC), which organize golf tournaments several times a year for allegedly charitable activities. One of his friends and members of this club is the multi-millionaire, director and co-owner of the Austrian supermarket chain MPREIS (income of 900 million euros for 2018) Peter Paul Mölk.

All club events are regularly reflected in the local press, where you can often see photographs of Kaltenhuber.

https://issuu.com/magazinring/docs/1907_t_magazin_gesamt_issuu (TIROLERIN, July 2019, pages 134-135)

Andreas's parents are also public figures. His father, Heinrich Kaltenhuber, previously served as the director of a school and was also head of the Austrian branch of the international charity organization "Lions". His mother, Waltraud Kaltenhuber, was formerly the principal of the general education school and now engages in political activities in the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP).

Andreas, Waltraud, Heinrich Kaltenhuber http://www2.land-oberoesterreich.gv.at/internetfoto/ViewDocument.jsp?id=156382&mandantId=3
“In other words, the Kaltenhuber family is part of the so-called elite of Austrian society. In any case, their level is much higher than a simple Austrian inhabitant,” tax79 says.


Andreas' wife, Carina Fontan, is six years older than him, for her this is the third marriage. Her previous husbands were also quite wealthy people. The first husband, from whom she had two daughters, is the owner of a bus rental company. The second husband is the owner of a major media company.

“Judging by the jewelery and watches that she wears, their total value on just one hand is more than 20 thousand euros,” tax79 indicates. “So among the scammers and thieves who decided to join the crypto industry on a wave of hype, you can find completely different characters, even those who you can’t expect to see there, much less suspect of theft.”

https://www.instagram.com/pushpanda.io/

Facebook helped establish the real identities of the anonymous founders of the Project, hiding under the unremarkable nicknames Andrew [MCT+] and Mari [MCT+].

“When creating the Project page on Facebook, they were on a business trip in Vienna, and Carina Fontan, apparently using the Wi-Fi service in the hotel, forgot to turn on the VPN. As a result, their actual location was displayed on the Project’s Facebook page,” tax79 says.

https://www.facebook.com/MCT-Plus-208985143115006/

Further, when analyzing the “Related Pages” section for likes and other information from some “Andreas” (the German version of the name “Andrew”), tax79 found likes on a page of a restaurant in Innsbruck from a certain Andreas Kaltenhuber. Next was the page of the software company PushPanda from Innsbruck, where a certain Andreas Kaltenhuber was the founder.

https://www.facebook.com/pushpanda.io/
“By comparing the information from social accounts of Andreas Kaltenhuber found with the information and dates from the Discord chat of the MCT+ project, it was determined with 100% accuracy that the found Andreas Kaltenhuber and Andrew [MCT+] are the same person,” tax79 says.


Even such an innocent detail as the publication in the MCT+ chat a photo of their dogs sitting on a seat of a golf cart allowed to further determine that the photo was taken in Golfclub Innsbruck-Igls.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHFWGxUHCMY

Andreas Kaltenhuber has been a member of this club for many years.

https://www.facebook.com/SSCSC/photos/a.306565629418087/306567046084612/
“Summing up the activities of fraudsters, we can state the following. Several thousand people lost their funds on the Platform during the theft and exit scam. Several thousand people holding MCTP coins lost all of their investment in the Project. Some investors lost significant amounts - several tens of thousands of euros each. The total damage from fraudulent activity can be estimated at many hundreds of thousands of euros,” tax79 sums up.


In several days after the MCT+ exit scam Andreas Kaltenhuber and Carina Fontan went to Malta on vacation.

https://www.instagram.com/andreaskibk/ https://www.instagram.com/fontanella007/

We tried to get comments from Andreas Kaltenhuber and Carina Fontan via Facebook, but have not received any response.

Additional materials:

Here is the result of a year-long investigation called "The complete story of the MCT+ Exit Scam":
https://drive.google.com/open?id=106rsZiOJDNpaeHNI_C3SjwS3tA1JZQ1gU2dGXRf0SBg

From the investigation you can find out:
- the real identities of the MCT+ founders,
- how the founders were identified,
- how much the founders got from the Project,
- on what purposes the raised funds were spent,
- what really happened during the Incident on May 14, 2019,
- how the exit scam was committed,
- the founders' life after the exit scam.


For more details you can contact me via Telegram: https://t.me/tax79