Alexandre Dreyfus, CEO and founder of fan token site Socios, has been accused of withholding payments to support the price of Chiliz (CHZ), the cryptocurrency used by the Socios community, according to a report from Off the field.

Fan tokens are tied to real-life sports teams, creators, or artists, and give token holders access to exclusive fan clubs where they can vote on decisions within their community. In the case of Socios, the platform is focused on sports, with users buying Chiliz to buy fan tokens representing various teams in soccer, football, motor sports, and more.

As reported by Off the fieldDreyfus allegedly failed to pay some of his advisers an agreed-upon share of Chiliz in exchange for backing the cryptocurrency. An unnamed tech executive said Off the field that he only got “a portion of what was promised” and claims that Dreyfus began “avoiding all communications with advisers” in September 2020.

His reason for not paying advisors? An internal message from Dreyfus seen by Off the field indicates that Dreyfus did not want Chiliz’s value to plummet. “We must also protect investors,” Dreyfus writes in the screenshot message. “When you give free tokens, people can sell at any price, they don’t care.” He then went on to point out that “real investors” who bought Chiliz could be losing money as a result of advisors selling the coin.

The technology executive referred Off the field to three other advisers who were also allegedly not paid and obtained confirmation from one of them. Oddly enough, that adviser approached Dreyfus once again (the context of their conversation is unknown) and informed Off the field that the four advisers had finally been paid in full. It is not clear if there are still other advisers to Chiliz who remain unpaid.

“We regret that some advisors who have worked with us in the past have not been paid in a timely manner and we have rectified this with them directly and today we maintain good relations,” said a Chiliz spokesperson. Off the field. “Deals were made when the company was prior to start-up and at that time we were unable to award CHZ directly as it was not listed on any exchange. To be clear, this delay is unacceptable and is not the way we want to run our business, and it does not meet the standards we hold ourselves to today.”

The staff members, who were also supposed to receive a portion of their salary at Chiliz, were not so lucky. When Chiliz’s value skyrocketed, an employee claims he failed to collect the $10 million Dreyfus allegedly owed. Chiliz later introduced a new contract to replace the ones previously signed by employees, resulting in a smaller allotment of cryptocurrencies. Off the field reports. The employee who was owed $10 million reportedly only got by with around $60,000 as a result of the new agreement. Another staff member was reportedly fired after speaking about the matter to the press.

Chiliz replied to Off the fieldreport in a post on Mediumstating that “it does not reflect the truth of the matter”.

Update March 12 at 6:05 pm ET: Updated to add Chiliz’s answer.