"Just what is this German blogger trying to do?"
Lately, we have been bombarded with news on the surging Asian hate crimes—Asians being attacked for no apparent reason by white people, the most recent victim being a Filipino-Chinese living in San Francisco in California.
While the Asian hate crimes refer specifically to physical attacks against Asians, I ran across a discussion on social media regarding a Filipino-controlled financial technology (fintech) company based in Australia which has been the subject of an attack by a German freelance blogger. Initially, I thought it would qualify as another form of Asian hate crime.
In his blog, German blogger Klaus Bardenhagen aka Michael Turton, who publishes under the name "Oz" and is reportedly living in Taiwan, alleged that Smart Asset Managers (SAM), an Australia-based fintech company controlled by Filipino-New Zealander Rommel Santos, as connected with DDK of Malaysia. Santos claims this is far from the truth as SAM is operating independently outside of DDK and is not, in any way, connected with the Malaysian firm.
If there is indeed a connection between Malaysia and SAM, it is because Santos says SAM is processing compliance requirements with the regulatory bodies in Malaysia and Indonesia.
According to Santos, he is quite bothered by Bardenhagen’s allegation as this could affect his company’s operations.
Santos says SAM owns the SAMKoin cryptocurrency, and operates legally in Australia, the Philippines, Indonesia and other parts of the world, having been given licenses from the regulators of the regions where it operates. Its parent company, the SAM Digital Technologies, is registered as a digital currency exchanger in Australia under AUSTRAC.
SAM was granted an initial endorsement by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas to proceed with the company registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and other government agencies.
So, who exactly is this Bardenhagen, and how does he operate?
Oz's website called Behind MLM is described by bloggers across the globe as centering on a business model to create fear with his "biased marketing" and to establish doubts and uncertainty by encouraging clicks on the Google banner. Of course, they get paid by capitalizing on people's fear.
Behindbusinessforhome.org writes, "Creating, fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) is a disinformation strategy used in sales, marketing, public relations, politics, cults, and propaganda. FUD is generally a strategy to influence perception by disseminating negative and dubious or false information and a manifestation of the appeal to fear."
"Given his website traffic he will make estimated $4,000 – $8,000 per month with the banners," it added.
Anton Toubia said in an article published in Medium.com was not as forgiving. He described Bardenhagen as a "scammer and extortionist."
Toubia writes, “OZ, the person behind the website BehindMlm.com is a well-known scammer, hiding behind a fake website, no contact information to reach him, and he pretends to be brave and honest. But actually, he is just a coward hiding with no way to reach him, other than his own fake blog that is full of lies. Also, he decides which posts to allow and which not, to make things look good for his side, and turns everything for his favor.”
According to the article, the internet has an abundance of information online about Bardenhagen’s "dirty scammy acts, attacking almost every company.” He added that the names used by Bardenhagen and Turtom are also believed to be fake and until now, nobody actually knows who is behind that BehindMLM website.
Toubia is advising people "not to use his website as a reference for their investment decisions."
I don’t know Bardenhagen personally but based on what his co-bloggers have written about him, I don’t think his allegation against SAM won’t qualify as an Asian hate crime. Maybe his co-bloggers would best describe his act.