Logan Paul still hasn’t refunded fans who lost millions of dollars on CryptoZoo game

Logan Paul is a well-known YouTuber, boxer, and wrestler who is all too familiar with controversy.

He has played videos purportedly showing unidentified flying objects (UFOs) and the contentious energy drink Prime, which Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) is currently pushing the FDA to look into. He had previously posted videos showing a dead body in Japan’s “suicide forest” of Aokigahara. He also angered PETA with videos showing him shock two dead rats and perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) on a koi fish.

However, some have also branded the 28-year-old as a cryptocurrency scammer. He has 23.6 million YouTube fans, 25.9 million Instagram followers, and 17.7 million TikTok followers.

Paul unveiled CryptoZoo in the fall of 2021. It is an animated NFT project with Pokémon influences that is marketed as “a really fun game that makes you money.” People would be able to “breed, collect, and trade exotic animal hybrids on the blockchain” and “incubate” animals for a little over $1,100, according to Coinbase. The more rare the animal, the more in-game currency (zoo tokens) that can be obtained on a daily basis.

Although the first 10,000 NFTs were quickly bought, the game was never completed. There isn’t a real game out there right now.

It was understandable that investors were incensed, and they still are.

In January, Paul—who is rumored to be worth $245 million—unveiled a $1.5 million recovery plan intended to pay back investors who were not happy. He promised to finish the game and stated that he intended “to offer a rewards program for players who are disappointed in the status of the game.”

My 3-step plan for CryptoZoo, including a $1.3M rewards program for disappointed players.

Thank you, @coffeebreak_YT pic.twitter.com/xFX017UHoc

— Logan Paul (@LoganPaul) January 13, 2023

Thirty days later, a number of shareholders filed a joint lawsuit against Paul and CryptoZoo, claiming that Paul and other members of the CryptoZoo team had fraudulently raised millions of dollars from investors.

“Paul and others behind with CryptoZoo made the business decision to forego an expensive and time-consuming process to create a functional CryptoZoo game or support it, and instead deliberately undertook a scheme to defraud Plaintiff and other consumers,” the current lawsuit claimed.

Without Stephen “Coffeezilla” Findeisen’s efforts, the lawsuit might never have been filed. Findeisen is a professional investigator of online fraud.

Findeisen, a self-described web investigator, has been looking into the CryptoZoo project for more than a year. He published a trilogy on YouTube in December 2022, blaming the NFT initiative for having let its supporters down in many ways. He also conducted interviews with a number of people who claimed to have lost money.

An Australian who lost nearly $335,000 in US dollars was among the most affected individuals. He asked that his identity not be revealed because he was afraid of retaliation.

Findeisen’s videos gained a lot of popularity. In March, he appeared on the “Joe Rogan Experience,” one of the most popular podcasts worldwide, to discuss his findings.

Findeisen stated that not a single financier has gotten paid back. (Paul stated in his January video that he had apologized to Findeisen after the latter accused him of using his name for “views and money” and publishing “a defamatory attack” in response to Findeisen’s YouTube library. Moreover, Paul stated that bringing legal action against Findeisen “would not benefit CryptoZoo stakeholders.”

About “tens of thousands” of people are victims of fraud, according to him. Similar to Findeisen, who has almost 3 million YouTube subscribers, Paul owes financiers more than $3.6 million.

Head engineer at CryptoZoo Zach Kelling, meanwhile, stated that Paul owes him “no less than $1 million” for his work.

“Logan doxxed me in January in a very public attack video on YouTube, blaming me for his project failing after he refused to pay my team and black-listing all of our tokens,” Kelling stated. “This led to death threats and put my family’s life in jeopardy.”

“Although Paul has since taken down the attack video, my unfortunate relationship to the project as a developer has caused massive issues for me in my life and career,” the Kansas City native, Kelling, added. “I deeply regret ever trying to help him or his team.”

Under the username “cptdandan,” an investor claims to have lost $110,000. Another victim said, “A reimbursement is insufficient. However, it’s at least something if that’s the worst that can happen. Logan Paul should serve some time in jail, but that will never happen.

He came to the conclusion that “some sort of government action is needed,” at the very least. (At this time, the government has not accused Paul of any criminal activity connected to CryptoZoo.)

Paul’s actions are “deplorable,” according to a third unhappy investor, who also said that “the fact he just tries to hide and hope it goes away is the worst.” He must accept responsibility for his error and act appropriately.

One other investor, who says he lost $15,000, “would like Paul to take a good hard look at himself, and ask if he truly thinks his family would be proud of a serial scammer who can’t man up enough to do the right thing.”

Findeisen had a message for Paul: “If you make big promises, you have to deliver. Scamming your fans is not acceptable.”

“My personal opinion is that CryptoZoo was a fraud, but I will leave it to law enforcement to decide if there should be further steps taken,” age 37 Coffeezilla noted. “As it is, Logan Paul is being sued by his own former fans, and I think that speaks volumes about the damage he’s done to others and to his own reputation.”

Findeisen vowed that he “won’t stop trying to help the victims get their money back. Logan Paul promised he’d refund them, it’s time to pay up.”