“Friends, I’m not used to responding to controversies. But there, given the magnitude, it seems important to me to clarify things. Monday evening, a few hours after the start of the controversy over the animated film Plush (teddy bear in French), Kev Adams came out of his silence. The actor is accused of having promoted NFT to finance this short film, which ultimately never saw the light of day. On arrival, the 770 people who invested in the project lost almost all of their stake, for a total loss of around 1.5 million euros, according to the revelations of Mediapart published on Sunday.
“We are going to ruin no one! »
“I was contacted in 2021 about a participatory animated feature film project. The idea was simple: I had to lend my voice to a potential cartoon and promote it. In other words: practice my profession. THAT’S ALL, ”defended the actor in a message posted on Twitter. It must be said that the project, which aimed to raise 60 million euros, was attractive. By buying teddy bear NFTs, at 1,250 euros each, investors were promised to become “co-producers” of the animated film: to be credited in the credits, to vote on the film’s script and even to recover up to 80% of the world’s profits from the movie box office.
A good deal that the comedian had promoted during a live Instagram broadcast on May 14: “On average, you will do six to seven times what you put in twenty-four months. Which is huge, when you think about it! “, he had promised, disguised as a teddy bear. And in the face of criticism, the actor defended himself: “No, we are going to ruin no one! “.
“The concept was new, modern, cool, and I liked the idea of sharing a film with people,” said Kev Adams in his message on Twitter. “I made sure of the seriousness of the project, I even spoke at length with the studios (which were supposed to produce and manufacture the film). I was confident, surrounded by professionals. I later understood that their project was too ambitious and unsuitable for the NFT and cinema market,” he continued.
A “big player” of poker at the origin of the project
Almost a year later – and when the film was to be released in the winter of 2023 – it’s a cold shower for investors. The project is stalled. The Discord has been closed, the accounts of Plush on social networks have been silent since last summer, buying teddy bear NFTs is now impossible. Today, Kev Adams, who claims to have “had no remuneration”, says he regrets “that people today feel aggrieved or betrayed”. “Contrary to what some articles have you believe, I am not the ‘brain’ of any operation or scam. […] I find myself today at the heart of a controversy which calls into question my integrity and my honesty vis-à-vis my public, ”he added.
According to our colleagues from Mediapart, the man behind this project would be Fabien Tref – he calls himself “Fabi” -, a cryptocurrency investor living in Dubai. He has never worked in the cinema, but he would be close to Kev Adams and would have financed his birthday in July 2020 in a villa in Cannes. Contacted by Mediapart, “Fabi” claims to have himself lost money in this project, due to the collapse of cryptocurrencies.
A preliminary investigation was opened against him in 2016 by the Toulon prosecution after a report on Tracfin, responsible for the fight against money laundering. It was the cash bets of this “big player” in poker that caught the attention of the authorities. The man would also have been banned from a casino, specify our colleagues.