The Bhutanese Leading the way.
On the 8th of May, the Competition and Consumer Affairs Authority (CCAA) put a stop to the Puth Group scheme calling it a pyramid scheme which predominantly focuses on continuous recruitment of new members and is designed to deceive people, is fundamentally unsustainable and prone to eventual collapse, thereby leaving members without the promised return on investment.
If this was a normal online business or financial investment Puth should have་returned the deposits of its members either fully or at least partially, but the scammers have essentially disappeared with neither the main head ‘Chris’ or the other ‘managers’ or the customer complaints ‘Wendy’ responding to messages and enquiries via the Telegram group.
It is clear that the keys to the crypto wallet that controlled all the USDT flow was in the hands of the Puth head scammers and once the wallet got big enough they used the CCAA notification as an excuse to steal the entire USDT in the wallet.
This is a smart move from the scammers perspective because before the CCAA notification many Bhutanese were putting in far more money than taking it out and this would have reversed after the CCAA notification.
The main Puth Group on Telegram called PT Bhutan at one point had around 25,000 Bhutanese as members but after the closure and controversy many left and as of 8th May 2024 there was around 19,900 Bhutanese members. An image of this group is with the paper.
The Telegram group is designed in such a way that members cannot comment but can only like posts.
Even if it is assumed that the 25,000 members only invested the minimal USD 50 each at the internship level then they would have lost a minimal amount of USD 1.250 million (mn) in total or Nu 106 mn (Bank selling rate of USD 1= Nu 84.5).
However, in reality there were three levels of USD 80 for level 1, USD 240 for level 2 and USD 720 for level 3. A source said that many Bhutanese recharged and invested in level 2 for USD 240.
If 25,000 members invested the level 1 USD 80 only then the loss is USD 2 mn or Nu 169 mn.
If a conservative loss of USD 100 per person is assumed then the loss amount is USD 2.5 mn or Nu 212 mn.
If an average loss of USD 240 per member is taken then the total loss us USD 6 mn or Nu 508 mn.
A Puth member said that he knows a Bhutanese in Thimphu who had invested Nu 180,000 just a few days before the shutdown and lost all that money.
He said he sent texts to withdraw his money to Chris, the managers and Wendy but there was no response.
Ironically before stealing the money Puth announced on 8th May that, “Puth will continue to help the people of Bhutan any carry out charity activities in Bhutan. We are a company from the United States and are legal and compliant worldwide. The cause of this incident is that the Puth has affected the interest of too many people and suffered malicious reports. If everyone joins us, then no one will do the previous work, and the social balance will be broken. I guarantee here that everyone can complete the tasks and withdraw money normally without any impact.”
However, since then the crypto wallet account is not accessible and no Bhutanese can take out any money.
It is important to note that the CCAA order did not forbid Puth from giving back money to the investors.
A former Puth member said that the few earlier investors would have all recovered their money and made some more but the majority of those who joined later would have lost money.
In the Puth system for USD 80 or level 1 investment the daily task or online product release would happen 5 times and each release would earn USD 0.64 or USD 3.60 per day.
This is apart from the direct 6% commission for a recruiter for the recruitment of a new member, 4% commission for the person who had recruited the recruiter and 2% commission for the recruiter above him.
One would get higher releases or earning for the higher levels.
Apart from being recruited by trusted people with the hope of high returns one of the reasons why many joined was also the ‘e-commerce’ license acquired by one of the Puth members named Phuntsho Wangdi.
This paper asked Phuntsho what happened to all the money of the investors and Phuntsho said he does not know as all the foreign contacts of Puth who ran the Telegram page are not responsive.
He confirmed that it is no longer possible to withdraw the money from the crypto wallet for USDT.
Meanwhile, since he was the license holder Phuntsho said that he was getting a lot of calls and messages with various threats against him including death threats by Bhutanese enraged with losing their investments in the scheme.
Phuntsho claimed saying he is not a major player and that he had only been asked to get a license, open an office and do charity work for Puth. He claimed he did not get paid any salary for his work and his only investment was USD 50 for which he got USD 150 in three months and that the only downline people he had recruited are five of his own relatives.
He claimed that he had told the Senior and Junior Captains from January 2024 itself not to recruit new people or upgrade their level.
The reporter asked him for message proof he had sent such a message but he claimed he said it verbally.
This paper talked to Phuntsho last week but he only revealed about a 1,000 strong Telegram group including him but did not share about the 25,000 strong Telegram group. When the paper asked him this week he said he was not aware.
