Crypto Firm Tied To UK Politics Vanished With Investors’ Money

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A UK crypto firm that disappeared, leaving 8,000 investors, including a Premier League footballer, locked out of their investments has sparked fierce debate over the issue of corporate lobbying in UK politics.

Phoenix Community Capital was rumored to be worth $800 million at one time and offered its clients investments that supposedly would get them their money back in 45 days.

Customers could purchase ten of the company’s own Fire tokens. With these tokens, they could then purchase a “nest”, and each owned nest would earn 0.225 Fire tokens each day. This, in theory, would result in 45 day returns on investment.

However, as The Guardian reports, the company disappeared in 2022, excluding around 8,000 investors from their funds. Investors included former Premier League footballer Alan Rogers, who lost almost $50,000, while others lost sums ranging from $6,000 to $100,000.

The company’s assets have since been sold to a company run by a person known as “Dan”, and investors are told that she has no obligation to them, but would still try to make returns.

The disappearance of a company sparks a lobbying debate

The company’s CEO and co-founder, Luke Sullivan, launched the company in 2021. Just a year later, he was asked to serve on an all-party policy group (APPG) on cryptocurrency.

An APPG is a collective composed of members of different political parties, gathered around a particular theme. Typically, APPGs are run by MPs, but can also be organized and funded by private entities, raising concerns about the ability of lobbyists to influence government policy.

Crypto policy is a high priority in the UK as the country grapples with the fallout from the collapse of FTX and lawmakers seek to shape crypto law in a largely unregulated industry.

Read more: FOI reveals 32 UK crypto traders lost over $2 million to FTX

Phoenix Community Capital donated $6,000 to a blockchain-focused APPG and also appeared on the group’s website as a corporate partner. Sullivan also claims to be a founding member and advisor of an APPG focused on the metaverse and web 3.0.

In response, the APPG Blockchain Secretariat stated that Phoenix Community Capital “has not participated in the APPG Blockchain Evidence Sessions to my knowledge.”

Speaking on behalf of the APPG on the Metaverse, the group’s president said: “Mr. Sullivan was at no time involved with our APPG and certainly did not ask permission or inform us before refer to the APPG on the metaverse and web 3.0.”

Sullivan told the Guardian he had made “a number of factual errors” and was not authorized to “clarify the actual facts”, before declining to respond to further requests for comment.

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