The Dutch billionaire who sued Facebook for hosting fraudulent Bitcoin advertisements that featured his name and image has claimed it impossible to reach an agreement, Reuters reports.

John de Mol, one of the brains behind entertainment giant Endemol and the Big Brother television format, filed his suit with an Amsterdam court three months ago . Since then, Facebook and de Mol have reportedly negotiated to no avail.

De Mol claims Facebook failed to set measures to stop such scams from advertising on its platform.

“While the company seemed to be cooperating, it was merely a smokescreen that concealed its reluctance to put in place the desired measures in a timely and correct manner,” said De Mol via a statement cited by Reuters.

Hard Fork has previously reported on numerous instances of fraudulent cryptocurrency ads that feature celebs from almost every corner of the world.

Australian television hosts , famed British philanthropist Richard Branson, Elon Musk, and even Lithuanian singer Jonatanas Kazlauskas have been targeted , as well as many others.

We’ve reached out to Facebook for comment, and will update this piece should we receive a reply.

Update 11:43 UTC, 10 September: A Facebook spokesperson has since contacted Hard Fork to explain the firm’s side of the story.

“We are as eager as John de Mol to remove misleading ads on Facebook – we don’t want them on our platform and remove them when we find them. We have increased our efforts across the board to detect potentially violating, scammy behavior and, as well as identifying and removing associated ad accounts that may violate our policies,” they said.

The spokesperson then added that Facebook is up against “persistent and constantly evolving adversaries” that attempt to game its systems, so the company aims to keep improving and evolving the enforcement of its policies.

“Although we agreed not to discuss ongoing litigation or the content of confidential settlement negotiations, we can confirm the parties tried over several weeks to find an amicable resolution in respect of Mr. De Mol’s complaint but unfortunately have so far failed in those good faith attempts,” said the spokesperson.

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Indiegogo launches its first token sale, but it’s for millionaires

Indiegogo has taken another step into cryptocurrency, blockchain, and funding through ICOs, launching its first security token sale – but it isn’t for everyone.

Fresh off its foray into initial coin offerings (ICO) last December, the crowdfunding service has launched its first security token sale. Indiegogo will help US-based St Regis Aspen Resort distribute its tokens to investors. The move will see the Colorado resort liquidate the equivalent of $12 million, to be made available as “Aspen Digital tokens.”

(Clarification: The $12 million figure refers to the minimum sum allocated for the token offering, St Regis Aspen Resort will actually sell up to $18 million worth of tokens.)

“We have always strived to foster innovation and provide our users access to some of the most novel and interesting products and ideas from around the world. With the blockchain revolution fully underway, we at Indiegogo are excited about the world-changing impact and potential of security tokens.” Founder of Indiegogo Slava Rubin said in the press release.

The “Aspen Digital tokens” are based on the Ethereum ERC20 Standard. Owning them will effectively give you a tokenized investment share of the St Regis Aspen Resort. But remember, a token is not the same as an actual share in a company listed through an IPO.

After reaching out to Indiegogo, they confirmed that there would be “no physical perks” provided to those that invest. This suggests, that in order to benefit from owning these tokens, they must appreciate in value.

Investors will be responsible for their tokens once they have been bought, and can be stored in a conventional Ethereum compatible wallet. The tokens can be traded through the “Templum Alternative Trading System,” which, interestingly for a token exchange, claims to be SEC-registered.

While this may sound like there will be some level of protection for investors, there is no clarity whether this will indeed be the case.

Usually ICOs, and token sales are open for anyone to launch, and anyone to invest in. However, the press release from Indiegogo states that only, “[a] ccredited [i]nvestors will be able to purchase Aspen Coins with [US] dollars as well as with Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH).”

Herein lies the problem, if you thought becoming an accredited investor was as easy as filling out some paperwork, and waiting for approval… you’d be right, in part. To be accredited you must either earn over $200,000, or your net worth must exceed one million dollars.

This doesn’t really stack up with Indiegogo’s promise of creating funding opportunities for entrepreneurs, and startups that anyone can invest in.

Usually Indiegogo allows the average person to inject some cash in support of a cause they believe in. But in this case, the opportunity is being held back strictly for wealthy – and most likely, well-established – investors.

We should also remember that companies have used the promises of blockchain tech to upscale their reputation in the past. Remember the tale of Long Blockchain Corp? Despite having nothing to do with the tech, it made its share price sky-rocket after including “blockchain” in its name.

While this offering from Indiegogo may involve the use of tokens, and cryptocurrency, in reality, it seems much more like a standard offering of an asset, tracked by tokens, rather than the true token sales we are used to.

In this, we also see an expansion of Indiegogo’s cryptocurrency and blockchain-based offering. But we should remain mindful, particularly with crowdfunding campaigns. Products don’t always make it to market – or else they turn out to be outright scams. This development may indeed further expose investors to risks often associated with ICOs or token sales, rather than make things safer.

All you token investors out there will have to stick to cryptocurrency exchanges to get your fix for now. Not that those are a safer alternative .

India is reportedly looking to ban cryptocurrencies once and for all

India’s government is once again looking to ban cryptocurrencies and regulate official digital currencies.

According to a report by India’s Economic Times , the government has kickstarted inter-ministerial consultations on a draft bill, which has reportedly been shared with relevant government departments.

Sources have revealed that several departments within the country’s government have already backed the notion of enforcing a complete ban on the “sale, purchase, and issuance of all types of cryptocurrency.”

The committee also stated that since cryptocurrency could be used for money laundering, a ban could also be achieved under the existing Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

As part of its review, the ministry of corporate affairs said many companies trading in cryptocurrency were doing so on false inducements of massive returns, with many running Ponzi schemes to “defraud gullible investors.”

Indeed, India has seen its fair share of cryptocurrency-related crime in recent months.

In February, Hard Fork reported on how the country’s police had booked a Mumbai resident for duping $250,000 out of 12 people in an alleged cryptocurrency scam. Reports at the time said the scammer asked victims to back an initial coin offering (ICO) for his new cryptocurrency ‘KBC coin.’ Unsuspecting victims were guaranteed that a KBC coin worth $0.0056 at the time would rise to $1 by March 2018.

Today’s news shouldn’t take anyone by surprise as it’s not the first time we hear about India looking to ban cryptocurrencies. In fact, the government was looking to devise a legal framework to prohibit the use of digital currencies, while promoting experimentation with decentralized ledger technology, in October last year.

The situation is likely to drag on, although a final law, based on feedback from this consultation, will be proposed to the new government which takes charge following next month’s election.

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