http://news.hankyung.com/article/201812035678g
BOScoin, which is known as 'Korea's first ICO Project', has been embroiled in internal conflicts between foundations and companies. Since the project is focused on decentralization and multiple agreements, is drawing attention from the industry as it creates governance problems.
Problems arose when the BOScoin Foundation in Switzerland demanded that the company responsible for developing the system (blockchain OS) give over all of its system rights. BlockChain OS is planning to urge the public to vote for the board members at the Boscon, which will be held on December 7. CEO Ye-joon Choi believes that the board members of the foundation are against the great cause of the project.
According to CEO Choi, the foundation requested that all intellectual property rights related to BOScoin should be transferred to the domain management right to operate the BOScoin service, and the web server management authority for blockchain networks. Choi explained, “If we accept this request, the foundation will have full authority and BlockChain OS will be like a development agency for BOScoin.
This is the reason why the company rejected the foundation's request. "There is intellectual property developed by BlockChain OS even before the foundation was established, and if this is transferred, it is considered as a breach of trust." said CEO Choi. "Currently, the board of the BOS Platform Foundation consists of three members, Choi, In-hwan Kim, a former CEO, and Serge Komaromi, a Swiss executive.
The board members excluding CEO Choi, has proposed compliance with local regulations in Switzerland, but Choi said, “There is a chance that operation of the BOScoin Mainnet will allow the project to go smoothly and I am concerned that the board members who lack the capacity to develop could be pushed aside".
This is not the first time for BOScoin to have internal disputes. According to CEO Choi, BOScoin collected 6902 BTC through ICO, and B, the former director of BOScoin Foundation, stole the wallet that had ICO funds collected. "Other board members persuaded him, but it didn’t work so we filed a criminal suit and B, who felt a sense of crisis, agreed to leave the blockchain industry instead of taking as much investment as his stake."
"At the time, if the incident was publicly known, the project reliability could be significantly damaged, and it was burdensome to set a precedent to look at the blockchain negatively," said Myeong-san Jeon, director of BlockChain OS.
However, B refuted that it was groundless. It is unilateral argument of Ye-jun Choi and Myeong-san Jeon that I "seize" 6,000 BTC. "In May last year, Ye-jun Choi, who was not a member of the foundation at the time, illegally withdrew about 400BTC (about 1 billion won at the time) without obtaining approval from the foundation. To prevent this from happening again, it is true that the 6000BTC was safely transferred to the foundation's own account, and the case is currently being investigated by the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office. We will file a criminal complaint against Ye-jun Choi and Myeong-san Jeon for defamation.
In addition, Ye-jun Choi and his people created a fake minute of the board meetings in October last year to hand over the right to issue the BOScoin to BlockChain OS and embezzled 80 million BOS that worth about 100 billion won at that time and divided among themselves. They didn't give a single BOS to B, who played an important role in starting a company and in the process of ICO," B said. "I can disclose evidence that the board made a meeting minutes that was not held at all times."
"Since then, Ye-joon Choi and others have been selling BOS at a high price in bulk in the Over-The-Counter market, and then the prices have plummeted, hurting investors. "The prosecution is also investigating this case as well, and stockholders of BlockChain OS are preparing to file a lawsuit against CEO Ye-jun Choi who embezzled company assets without permission from shareholders."
“Choi’s argument that I agreed to leave the blockchain industry instead of taking an equity investment is absurd. I will also file a criminal complaint against Ye-jun Choi and Myeong-san Jeon against defamation."B added.
"It is utterly untrue that I established N cryptocurrency exchanges with the seized BTC. We used 550 BTC to develop a dApp based on a contract with the foundation and returned the rest of the BTC to the foundation." explained B.
He argued, “The truth is that CEO Choi illegally used about 3,500BTC of the foundation’s fund, and is refusing to sign a contract to supply products developed with the foundation’s money. Under this circumstance, the proposal to elect a director through a community vote is absurd.” He also said, “CEO Choi’s argument is spread as if it is true, even though he has kept a lid on since he is investigating the case by filing a criminal complaint.”
CEO Choi plans to propose that all investors elect directors of the foundation through a vote at the BOScoin. But it is not likely that the foundation will accept this. Executive Komaromi said, “The idea of multiple investors sharing power is positive, but the reality can be negative as it becomes a mobocracy.”
This dispute could also spread to other projects. Since other projects have similar decision-making structures, BOScoin case could be the standard. An industry insider said, “As the Korean government banned ICO, many projects established foundations and recruited local people in foreign countries, while carrying out business in Korea”. He/She also mentioned, “If the BOScoin issues end up with the foundation’s victory, I doubt whether other project’s foundations remain silent.”
On the other hand, another industry insider said, “If ICO is a corporate entity of foundation, it can be done according to Switzerland’s law. Stirring up the coin holders to justify illegal action by using the nationalist thought will ruin the cryptocurrency ecosystem.
As it is Korea’s first ICO project with all industries’ eyes on, BOScoin take responsibility to solve the current issues wisely.