TORY peer Michelle Mone said she has staked her reputation on a new “global business” selling her own brand of cryptocurrency.
“We’ve got incredible reputations. There’s no way we’re going to do anything untowards to let these people down,” Mone said at yesterday’s launch as she appealed for supporters to invest hundreds of thousands of pounds.
Hours later the cryptocurrency market collapsed, with prices tanking by around 25 per cent.
Mone, who founded lingerie brand Ultimo, and her billionaire partner Doug Barrowman, want to raise $75 million through an initial coin offering (ICO).
The money will be used to develop the “Equi” platform, which will allow people who aren’t millionaires to get a foot in the door of the heady venture capital investment business.
The proposal is effectively a mixture of crowdfunding, Dragon’s Den, monopoly and gambling.
Your normal everyday member of the proletariat will buy one of the Baroness’s “Equi tokens” and then will have the choice to give that token to one of the fledgling entrepreneurs using Mone’s site to look for investment to get their business off the ground.
If that business becomes profitable then the investor gets a share in 70 per cent of the return. Mone and Barrowman take 25 per cent of the profits.
Barrowman told Business Insider: “Essentially what an Equi Token allows people to do is access our platform, have a look at the investment propositions that we are showcasing and form a view, and they can use the Equi Tokens to effectively invest in the projects in a project-by-project basis.”
Mone will offer help and advice to businesses that raise money on the Equi platform.
“When Doug told me about Equi last year, I was so excited to be coming and helping the team to help the entrepreneurs,” Mone said. “I think that’s never really been done before with a whole board of seriously successful business people.”
There are now over 1400 cryptocurrencies in circulation, but wild price swings and a huge number of scams have put investors off.
Mone said she hoped investors would trust her not to screw up and lose all their money: “This whole cryptocurrency world is based on trust. People know who Doug is. They know who I am. They know who a lot of the people on the board are. I think that’s quite powerful.
“It’s very powerful. Because a lot of them are all smoke and mirrors. We’ve got incredible reputations. There’s no way we’re going to do anything untowards to let these people down. We will try our utmost.”
Mone was in the news last week after branding a Glasgow MP an “SNP moron” and boasted that she would be in the House of Lords for the rest of her life.
Stewart McDonald, highlighted a social media post from Lady Mone in which she trumpeted the commercial success of her designer jewellery firm.
Mone replied: “What are u talking about u SNP MORON!I have voted over 78 times,not twice!I’m a Global entrepreneur with 9 biz interests not a full time MP like u!The difference is I’m a Baroness for life,whereas u will be out of ur MP job in no time…”
However, Mone’s parliamentary register of interest only mentions five business interests.
This says she owns 100 per cent of MGM Media, a 49 per cent shareholding in and directorship of MMI Global Limited, a 20 per cent holding in Ultimo Brands International Limited, a five per cent stake in Weshop, and a non-executive directorship of tech firm VE Global UK Ltd.
Speaking at Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany, the new head of the Bank for International Settlements, Agustín Carstens, said that unless there was more regulation on cryptocurrencies then it could “a threat to financial stability.”
Carsten, a former governor of Mexico’s central bank, said cryptocurrencies were “unsafe”, potentially facilitating tax evasion, money laundering and criminal finance.
The price of Bitcoin rose by 900 per cent last year, making it the best-performing asset of 2017. It hit a peak of near $20,000 in the week before Christmas. Today, the price of bitcoin fell below $6000 (£4300) for the first time this year.
Bitcoin is not recognised by any central bank and allows people to bypass traditional payment methods to pay for goods and services.
Meanwhile, Lloyds Banking Group has banned customers from using its credit cards to buy bitcoin, amid fears it could be left in debt as the cryptocurrency’s value deflates.
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