All transactions in Daxio are conducted with a cryptocurrency, a digital currency without a central regulatory body.
Daxio har skapat ett starkt fotfäste i Skellefteå på kort tid. Många svenskar har investerat stora summor pengar i företaget trots att myndigheter och experter varnat för att det kan vara ett pyramidspel och möjligen är en "bluff".
In the past year, the Swedish Gambling Authority has received around twenty queries and complaints from the public about Daxio. One of those who made a complaint about the company is 59-year-old Lennart Lindeberg in Gothenburg. He says several of his friends have been lured into investing large sums of money into Daxio.
– It started when my mate came into contact with Daxio when he was working on an oil rig in Norway. And then the shit hit the fan. My best friend invested with 500,000 kronor he borrowed on his house. I have warned him several times, but it has not helped, says Lennart.
Daxio's operations are multifaceted and a little complex. As a member, you can, among other things, "invest" cryptocurrency in so-called odds trading. According to Daxio, the assets are then managed by a team of experts who buy and sell odds on betting exchanges all over the world in order to maximize returns.
– It's something that sounds far too good to be true, says Lennart.
– I don't think there are either bots or people who sit and work on this.
Marcus Aronsson, investigator at the Swedish Gambling Authority, has previously explained to Norran how an investment fraud works:
– Money is taken from the common pot that all "customers" have pumped money into. This leads to increased hype and more people being recruited into the fraud. Then, when the company has received enough money, they just "collapse" everything. And then there is no money left.
Lennart believes that this is exactly what his friends have experienced.
– At first, my buddies got out maybe 7,000 kronor a week. But now my best friend has 265,000 kronor in Daxio that he can't get out – they claim that there is something wrong with the payment system. He pretends it doesn't matter. You have to understand that those who have been tricked into this have such a strong will, such a strong belief that it will work, that they refuse to accept any other possibility.
That is a lot of money.
– Yes, I told my friend not to be so stupid, to maybe start by depositing a few thousand kronor. But half a million, like! That's a lot of money. My friends have money, they are not down and out, so to speak. Yet.
How do you feel when you see your friends spending so much money on this?
– I am powerless and can do nothing. It doesn't matter what I say; they don't want to listen to me.
Don't people have personal responsibility for how they spend their money?
– Of course they do. But they are completely convinced that they will get rich from this, which I do not believe at all.
According to Daxio's own figures, the company has more than 5,000 members in Sweden. As Norran previously reported, local meetings are organized regularly in Skellefteå. A similar arrangement exists in the areas around Gothenburg, where Lennart and his friends live.
Lennart also believes that Daxio is deliberately deceiving older people.
– Old people come to these meetings who do not understand how cryptocurrency works, and who are perhaps primarily looking for community. And then they get "help", but actually get tricked out of their money. I feel sick – it's such a pity for them, he says.
In an interview with Norran, Daxio's co-founder and development manager, Frode Jørgensen, who, in 2007, was sentenced to two years and six months in prison for operating a pyramid scheme in Norway, claims that Daxio is not a pyramid scheme or investment scam at all. He also says that the delayed payments have been due to technical problems, which are now fixed.
Daxio's co-founder, Frode Jørgensen.
What do you think about Lennart's friend having large sums of money that he hasn't been able to cash out?
– I don't really think anything about it. Getting money out of Daxio is not a problem.
But it has been for a while.
– No, but there have been technical problems. We haven't been able to pay out fast enough, which is a shame. But we have paid out to our members throughout the period.
Is it because you have had too little money in the system?
– No, we haven't had that. Often the problem is that many people do not understand how our business works. But we try to simplify and explain so everyone can understand in a simple way. But there is always someone who thinks we have "pulled the plug" and scarpered with the money, says Jørgensen.
Jørgensen also refutes the accusations that Daxio is deceiving elderly people. He says the physical meetings, on the contrary, fulfill an important function for the members.
– The physical meetings are a traditional method that works well, for example in Skellefteå when people meet at a local cafe. It creates better cohesion and loyalty between members. You make contacts and have the opportunity to meet new people. It's fantastic, I think.
READ MORE: Skellefteå residents warned about "scam" company
READ MORE: Daxios medgrundare om kritiken: ”Inte ett pyramidspel” (in Swedish)
Fotnot : En månad efter intervjun frågade Norran Lennart Lindeberg om hans kompis fått tillbaka sina pengar. Lennart säger att han nu har börjat få ut en del av sina pengar från upplägget, men har inte fått allt .