Cambridge Analytica Behind Gambling Token Sale Dragon Coin

Dragon Coin with its primarily target on the Asian gaming industry claiming that it already raised $320 million.

Data firm Cambridge Analytica is once again in the spotlight after the NY Times disclosed it was trying to get on the blockchain and cryptocurrency hype in the past months.

Based on email and official documents obtained by the NY Times, the London based Political data and consultancy firm was one of the main supporte of the casino cryptocurrency Dragon Coin and its ICO.

The so-called involvement with Dragon, the coin that gives buyers a virtual currency which they can exchange for chips in a yet-to-be-built land-based casino.

The obtained documents link Wan Kuok-koi, a ‎Macau gangster as a patron of the Dragon Coin, although the original project creator denied his participation in financing the token sale in any way. Wan who already served 12 years in prison for money laundering, was present at a signing ceremony for the launch og the Dragon ICO.

Dragon, with a primarly focus on Asia’s gaming industry, ‎claimed earlier this year that it has raised $320 million in capital before the public token sale opens. The startup aims to raise more than $400 million in what would be one of the biggest crowd sales to date.‎

Cambridge Analytica played an insidious role in promoting‎ Dragon ‎Coin, according to the report. The company emailed potential investors and ultimately arranged for some of them to take all-expenses-paid trips to a glitzy Dragon Coin event in Macau.

Although a number of outstanding businesses have made moves into the cryptocurrency hype these past few moths, this case may be peculiar for a number of reasons.

Alongside Facebook, Cambridge Analytica is at the ‎center of an ongoing dispute over the alleged harvesting ‎and use of personal data without users’ permission. The ‎authorities in the US and UK also investigate ‎whether such data was then used to ‎influence the outcome of the 2016 ‎US presidential election and the Brexit vote.‎

One major reason why Cambridge Analytica ‎was interested in getting into ‎the ‎cryptocurrency space was its plans to attract ‎people to store and sell their online personal data. A ‎former employee of the company said in an interview that “‎the goal was to protect that data from more or less what the ‎company did when it obtained the personal information of up to 87 ‎million Facebook users.‎”

Source: financemagnates.com