Ex-Google Engineer Patrick Shyu accused of running a crypto Ponzi scheme after he lied about investing $1 million of his own money into his newly created stable coin Million Token

Daniel Levi Posted On August 13, 2021

54.8K Views

A little over two months ago, we covered the story of Patrick Shyu, the self-proclaimed Ex-Google Tech Lead and Ex-Facebook Software Engineer, who, as a multi-millionaire, cautioned against investing in cryptocurrencies. This piece coincided with the time when the Tether scandal and Binance investigations were dominating the news cycle.

What we didn’t know then was that Shyu had doxxed a fellow coding YouTuber named Tren Black and a member of his family for posting a negative video about him, as reported in a Reddit post. Additionally, Tech Lead faced legal repercussions for unethically redirecting web traffic from his competitor’s site, AlgoExpert.io, to his own website. Eventually, the Tech Lead issued apologies and even wrote a letter to AlgoExpert, as documented in a screenshot provided in our article. For more details, you can refer to the full story on GurusCoach.com.

Returning to the present, just a few days before our May article, Shyu released a YouTube video in which he warned crypto investors about the risks associated with cryptocurrencies and the Tether scandal. He informed his 1.2 million subscribers that he had divested all his holdings in bitcoins, Ethereum, and Cardano.

“Some information has come to light that has made me skeptical about this whole cryptocurrency market thinking that the whole thing could be being pumped up by a Ponzi scheme and I wanted to make this video quickly to warn any of you out there as well who may have substantial life of your own also in cryptocurrencies,” Shyu said in a YouTube video on May 19.

Then on July 1, Shyu surprised his YouTube fans after he announced the launch of a brand new digital currency called Million Token. “The guy himself was warning against crypto telling people to sell out on crypto and then all of a sudden comes up with his own,” one of his YouTube fans said.

According to the Million Token website, Million Token is “A Decentralized Digital Currency for Millionaires by Millionaires.”

“Million is a decentralized digital currency with a limited supply of 1,000,000 tokens pegged to a minimum value of 1.00 $USDC, for a total market cap of 1,000,000+ $USDC. Million was founded by ex-Google / ex-Facebook Tech Lead with over 1,000,000 subscribers on YouTube (as a millionaire),” according to a statement on Million Token home page.

In a YouTube video announcement on July 1, Shyu said:

“Today, we are lunching a brand new digital currency. The currency’s name? Million Token. And million token is literally a million-dollar opportunity. I’m putting a million-dollar of my own money into this to get us started. This coin can skyrocket and take us to the moon.”

Many of his 1.2 million You subscribers were probably intrigued that he put $1 million of his own money into Million Token, which makes it seems as if he has something on the line and something to lose.

However, it turned out to be a complete lie–Patrick Shyu did not put $1 million of his money into the Million Token. He lied to his subscribers at the very beginning of the Million Token project.

In fact, according to the analysis of Tech Lead’s blockchain wallet address by CoffeeZilla (a YouTuber who exposes fake guru scam artists), Patrick Shyu started the Million Token with the entire money coming from his Million Token investors at the very launch. Then, as he sold the tokens, he used the money people invested in the coin to back the Million Token. CoffeeZilla is not alone, another article titled, “YouTuber TechLead Accused of Scam as Million Token Plummets (-64%)” was also posted on Reddit.

Below is a post from Million Token’s official Twitter account.

“Tedd Garrett forgot to mention that @techleadhd LIED. He did not say “I am keeping a $1M peg.” He said “I am putting $1M of my OWN MONEY into this.” That’s very different, and even if @SECGov doesn’t investigate, the @FTC could investigate for Fraud,” Twitter user GS responded.

https://twitter.com/gjsman1000/status/1426209589134036992

You might be asking, how did we know he didn’t use his own money? According to CoffeeZilla’s further analysis of Tech Lead’s blockchain wallet address, he only ever bought $50,000 of USDC from CoinBase. But everything else he puts into Uniswap came from Million Token investors. He later used that to guarantee the price of the token. In other words, he did not risk any of his own money. He used other people’s money to fund the Million Token project.

Tech Lead also admitted in his August 8 YouTube video that he only invested $50,000 of his own money in the Million Token. You can listen to what he said in his August 8 video (second video below.)

That’s not all. The story actually gets worse. To cover his basis and avoid potential regulatory trouble with the SEC, Tech Lead went on to tell his subscribers and Million Token buyers that “This token is too risky for investment. So Million Token should not be considered an investment by any means. This is a social experiment and really pure speculation. It’s kind of a game to see what happens to us with this.”

In another video, Tech Lead went on to tell his 1.2 million YouTube fans that the only way to get rich is to get rich quick.

“If you’re looking to make money or looking to get rich, what I’m trying to tell you is that perhaps there is no such thing as get rich slow scheme. The people who make money, make it fast and there is just no other way about it,” Tech Lead explained.

With the mask off, Tech Lead basically said the only way to get rich is through a “get rich quick” scheme.

Tech Lead went on to say that there are no whales in the Million Token with the largest ownership being “only 3 percent.” However, a careful analysis of the Million Token project shows that Tech Lead still owns 13% of the Million Token as of August 7.

Did Tech Lead make money from the Million Token project?

You better believe it. CoffeeZilla traced all the transactions made from Tech Lead’s blockchain wallet. According to his calculation, Tech Lead made a total of over $3.3 million from Million Token sales.

As we conclude, did Tech Lead to Million Token investors? The answer is Yes. GS said it best in this tweet:

“The case here against @techleadhd doesn’t even require security laws or the @SECGov. He said “I put $1M *of my own money* into this,” and admitted it was actually $50K. Even if the $50K would have worked, it was a lie, and the @FTC could sue him… if not individual investors.”

https://twitter.com/gjsman1000/status/1426210656777347073

Supporting Videos.

Video of Million Token announcement on July 1.

https://youtu.be/xBSEMJDwvXk

In what seems like a prophetic message, Tech Lead said in the August video below: “I’M SORRY. I’m going to jail.” At the rate this is unfolding, whether he meant the video to be sarcasm, it won’t be long before the SEC opens an investigation into his involvement in the Million Token. It shouldn’t come as surprise when Million Token buyers file a lawsuit against him.

https://youtu.be/00BysBsYH5c

Below is CoffeeZilla’s detailed analysis of the Million Token project.