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Coffeezilla
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Exposing the Hawk Tuah Scam

That’s a sentence I never thought I would say… But I had to say something when the “Hawk Tuah girl” launched a meme coin, that quickly got sniped, generated millions and fees for the team, all the while “strategic advisors” sold even MORE on the project….

So I joined their Twitter space and did my best to get some answers on what happened and why I thought it was a scam. (In my opinion of course).

Voidzilla on this soon, but for now, enjoy the disaster and let me know what you think of their responses.

Comments

How long after you joined did you see your name? Just curious, because I joined about 4 days ago and while I know it takes time to make the kind of quality content we've come to love, I hope to see my name up there at the appropriate time…

Nicholas Rednour

Dude got rugpulled back.. Emotionally, think he is still with his phone in his hand questioning life, Coffee ypur wild🎯💀🧡

Pet 010

This is simply untrue. There are many reasons to have entities in other places. https://www.wolterskluwer.com/en/expert-insights/doing-business-in-the-cayman-islands There are reasons why companies large and small want to set up entities in foreign countries. Maybe you don't want your competitors to know what you're up to, or maybe you're a large international business operating across borders and it's just easier to have accounts offshore. Lots of legitimate companies do this. Or maybe you think the SEC is off their rocker with regard to crypto and do not want to go to jail for no reason. From this list https://finchat.io/lists/country/ky/ you can find such subversive (and publicly traded) companies like Del Monte Produce FDP https://freshdelmonte.com/ Credo Semiconductor CRDO https://credosemi.com/ Fabrinet FN https://fabrinet.com/ And many more. You have conflated tax avoidance and tax evasion. Why should a company be required to be taxed in the US for money received globally and used globally? I am not saying that tax evasion or fraud doesnt happen. it's just an extremely simplistic point of view that any corporate construction that uses the Cayman Islands is engaging in fraud. For many things the US is simply not friendly or not a trustworthy partner. Further, the very definition of investor is someone who takes a risk putting their capital into something. The investors themselves are knowingly engaging in a high risk activity, especially in crypto and by this time it is impossible not to know that.

Robert Hirsch

Regulatory difficulties or not, this protection from oversight transfers the high risk onto the "investor". Nobody associated with the Cayman Islands is up to any good. It's tax evasion as a country.

Zach Bryant

While that is enlightening, the fact that operating outside of any real oversight is commonplace further cements for me to stay the hell away from crypto. Even with the regulatory difficulties you describe, it is far too shady to expect anyone with a brain to trust a company that needs to hide itself in such a way.

Zach Bryant

Commenting on the Cayman Island Part: As a crypto project founder, I can confirm that it's common practice to set up a foundation outside of the US to avoid dealing with the SEC. This is because the SEC often attacks crypto projects, even legitimate ones, and it's costly to defend against these attacks. Most crypto lawyers advise against launching in the US due to the high risk and cost of SEC intervention. To mitigate this risk, many projects establish a foundation in a country like the Cayman Islands, Netherlands, or Switzerland. In fact, there is a competitive market for this service between these places. This foundation must be separate from any US entities to avoid giving the SEC jurisdiction. This part is critical. It was established that fees were being sent to a foundation, which controlled how the funds were spent. It is certainly possible that there is a scam, but "fees went to the foundation" isn't the scam. The scam would be "Hawk Tuah girl had direct control of those funds". Maybe that happened, maybe it didn't, but that is what was needed to be proven. I'm not defending the project or the situation, but I understand why this setup was chosen. The US has made it difficult and risky to launch crypto projects, forcing many to seek safer options abroad. To further clarify: I can't believe anyone invested in this project. I can't believe they claimed to be anything other than a meme coin. I CAN believe that the early investors dumped their tokens onto the market the first chance they got and the people who she was working with should have absolutely known that would happen.

Robert Hirsch

As a founder of a crypto project, I assure you that this is standard operating procedure and is done, even for legitimate projects, in order to keep clear of the SEC. By that I mean, the SEC is attacking willy nilly, and losing most of the time. So while the SEC is on the losing end of their efforts most of the time, young projects simply can not afford to subject themselves to this threat. There is no crypto lawyer in the US that advices to launch in the US. Our lawyer said "It takes a tremendous amount of faith and courage to launch in the US". It's also hard to get funding for projects launched in the US, because it is hard for investors to know if Gary is going to get in frenzy over their project. The safe route is to have a foundation formed somewhere else. Cayman Islands, Netherlands, Marshall Islands, Malta, and Switzerland are all common places to do this. The foundation MUST be separate from the US entities, otherwise Gary has the ability to attack in the exact same way as if it were an American entity. So when this guy was defending himself from Coffee on this subject, I understood where he is coming from. The fees were going to this foundation, that foundation controls how the cumulative fees were spent. I'm not sure I could have calmly described this scenario in that situation either. I am not defending this situation. I am certainly not defending that project. But this part of the crypto space sucks and it sucks because they have made it unsafe to launch crypto projects in America.

Robert Hirsch

it's not crypto bro it's regular poeple getting scam

felykiosa

That’s Hawk Tuah herself

Aaron kletter

Coffee was mentioned in the Vanity Fair article, the Rise and Fall of Hawk Tuah Girl

Chris Hickey

The sad thing is that the difficult part of this is actually getting these people to trial. That costs a lot of money.

Asyouare

Same! I’m grateful for people like CZ exposing these scams for what they really are.

Isaac

This video is what got me to subscribe to CZ’s Patreon… this video is hysterical & yet so satisfying (Thanks Coffee for keepin it real 🤘😂)

Olga

Lmao! "Right tuah jail."

Daruka Eon

Who was that kid that was yelling "What, Coffeezilla!?" at the beginning?

DaMu

Lots of people referencing you in their videos today. Keep up the good work!

WaterWoman

This one was a doozy, keep up the great work Coffee!

KomplicatedYT

Finally got my card to go through to support you. Been meaning to for a while. Patreon payments are really difficult from India for some reason. Thank you for what you do Coffee. Truly the greatest journalist of our time!

duresh08

Why do these Meme Coin Scammers think they can pull a fast one on you, not to mention be so pretentious to their scammed fans?

Azrael Nauctis

How did anyone think investing in a hawk thua coin was a good idea 🙄

Karl Doyle

Crypto bros: hate government and laws. Get scammed* crypto bros: I’ll bring in the government and lawyers against you 🙄 every single time.

Fernanda Alario

Nice! :) go go go Coffeezilla

Alexander Palffy

absolutely wild. everyone wants a piece of the meme scam pie

Nolan

It is, she's just a clueless trying to enjoy her 15 minutes of fame person. I feel bad for her.

MIKΞL

Posted on their TG Hello to all the investors, I probably should have put this up before. I really put in 110% effort into HKTU. I invested a lot into the project and into the utilities and walked away with nothing from this. I apologize to you all that I failed you. The partner that I had for this project @CordNoPlug set me up from the beginning with full intention of ripping me off. He was the writer for the contract and developer. When the hawk tuah girl stop being famous everyone started to sell. Then about a week later. Cord went in to the mw and stole all the funds and traded all the tokens I had in That wallet. I learned that he has done this to several projects that he has helped launch or written the contract for. The project he did this to before mine was Moose Knuckles. I’m very sorry that this project failed. I had such high hopes for it. If anyone has any questions feel free to contact me, (I’m not going any where) and I will any questions you have. I strongly believe in honesty, and transparency. Thanks SpecopS

MIKΞL

Honestly tho, why is anyone suprised? Influencers seem to be getting away with rugpulls left and right. It's basically free money because their scandal will just dissapear within a few days when the next scandal is erupting - and so the cycle goes.

Bjørnar

A foundation in the Cayman Islands? Like that's supposed to inspire trust? Bruh 💀

Zach Bryant

lol. Sad that Hawk Tuah will be the scape goat of this scam.

Francois Veilleux

Love the part where they mention the costs of setting up a foundation in the Cayman Islands... Yeah, that instills a boatload of confidence.

Neal Daringer

your right. it's also very good at inflating micro strategy stock price to purchase more bitcoin which raises the price which allows them to purchase more bitcoin which raises .... wait a minute...

StreetsAhead

“Who is paying you coffee?” 🤣🤣

Rene Macias

everyone report her and her team to the fbi under cyber crime reporting.

MewintheDark

I understand your comment. Problem is no one ever answers the question. (Not that they have to.) But when every question if followed by spin and "calm down bro" I'd start lose it too. It may not be productive but it's not a Meet The Press interview either.

Kyle G

She's young and clueless. I feel confident in saying she also got scammed... SPD

MIKΞL

probably- anything unregulated that unscrupulous people can buy for nothing on the dl, control the supply, hype to the marks and sell into the cattle call- until crypto gets real regulations this will never stop.. and politicians don’t want the rest of you to realize that it’s the same old scam just in a shiny new package- they get to pretend they don’t understand it while they get lobbied by these criminals- and don’t think it’s different in the bigger coins either- they’re just better at it.. That’s why i stopped being a stockbroker- BTC is big like a 2008 bank- and the same thing will happen eventually

IzzyDeadYet

She is clueless, she got screwed too.

MIKΞL

My friend told me that they used to do this with telephone cards? Apparently it was a get rich quick scheme? International Calls?

KnockKnockitstheKGB

Oh gee, a Tennessean woman who got viral over a BJ joke is turning out to be a scammer....why am I not surprised

KnockKnockitstheKGB

Another moron's -who even invest with these scammers.Who cares where money gone?WTF

Adam Bialoszewski

I saw mine a few times but not every time. Must be a matter of fitting us all.

Leonardo

I was waiting for the "we used to love Coffeezilla until..."

Leonardo

It's nice seeing you go for the throat Coffee!

OddDogWarrior

The classic follow-up question claims more victims. And they say journalism is dead.

Winged Gunsknecht

It is the gift that keeps on giving but honestly, I hope the girl is not involved and I don’t think she is. She’s young and what could she possibly know about Crypto? I know I’m decrepit at age 61, but it did take me years to figure it out.

WaterWoman

Just watch how she will start crying later and say her male partners manipulated her.

Abdelkader Boudih

I feel bad for the girl. She's trying to do what's trendy and obviously she doesn't understand the economics of how crypto works and someone pitched her this idea. Whoever advised her to be the face of a crypto coin has really done her a disservice. I do hope she learns the hard way by means of legal ramifications of not knowing what you're signing off on.

M Dub

Godspeed Coffee. Imagine someone goes to jail for this and probably the worst place to hear hauk tauh

Rambo Louw

“Take a chill pill.” Bro, it’s not 1990…

Jessie Booten

"You're used to these scammers out here, not us" All these scumbags sound the same

Keller

and I was a penny stock broker… it’s the exact same shell game, but less rules- thank god for Coffee - He actually understands this more than just about anyone- especially the regulators

IzzyDeadYet

man it’s so funny all these folks think nobody can figure out their game, but it’s exactly the same as penny stocks in the 90’s. Like literally exactly the same game-

IzzyDeadYet

ikr

IzzyDeadYet

hmm on reflection she is very young so i dont know if this is a case of being taken advantage of in a fast pace environment

James Linderman

As an aside, I never see my name in the credit rolls. Anyone know why that would be?

Jonathan Bastnagel

Lol they're crying defamation

Jonathan Bastnagel

"One of the most misserable horrible launches I have ever seen" hits diferent coming from Coffeezilla

Mario Ojeda

You kind of make my point there ;-) That's exactly what I meant by "corporate speech", if you let them make excuses by putting forward the proverbial and ominous "Company" (or in this case their Foundation), you will never get to the bottom of it. It's just another entity for them to hide behind! Regarding the comparison to McDonalds, at least their ownership is quite clear and documented I guess, unlike in this case... I'm absolutely sure they could have clear-cut told us who owns or controls their "Foundation". And I think the question you mention he even asked them almost 1:1, no? Who got the money the foundation received in the end (what expenses did they mean exactly, etc.) and who controls or owns the foundation. Even if he didn't though, that's how they could've easily silenced him if they had anything to go on! I'm sure if their answers were just a bit more believable he would've let them talk! Also, I don't think that space was about understanding every detail of their rugpull, but rather calling them out in front of their fans. And I think he did that, at least in my opinion, although he was a little (too) heated.

Josua Zurbrügg

It amazes me how a single un-funny viral for some reason tiktok is a joke that keeps giving.

Ed Leszczynski

The dumb tuah girls losing it immediately when coffee starts his comment

Mario Stoilov

To me it sounded like asking McDonald's where the money of a burger goes to. You can't answer that with something other than to "the company". From that money expenses get payed and the rest is for the shareholders. "Who controls the foundation and how much of the money did they get?" would've been the question. Of course I can completely understand him getting heated, but criticising the way he asked his questions isn't about decorum, it's about productivity. I didn't understand how the scam went or how what they said was untrue, and I know something about the matter in general. How is anyone who isn't involved im hawk tua coin going to really understand what even happened here?

Marcel Z.

Tbf it's got to be incredibly frustrating hearing the same excuses from scammer after scammer in denial that they are scammers. In a time where scammers are running amok the window has shifted on what folks think is acceptable and it's outrageous.

Ernest Garrison

They didn't want your kind there, all informed, hurling facts and stuff. They can only profit off idiots. So..go away...smart guy

Mike Gervasi

But following the money is literally the main point, no? There's certainly *someone* behind the foundation and their stupid answers made it very clear for the listeners that this project is just all around sketchy. Your follow-up questions are solid, but until they give even a half-believable answer about where the money went, I don't blame Coffee for not letting them of the hook - that's kind of his job. Agree on the Cayman Island stuff, but that's tough to nail down in a heated exchange. And yeah, getting too emotional isn't ideal since it can mess with your train of thought, but can you blame him? These guys are straight-up scammers, understandable that he gets a bit (too) emotional. In the end I guess we just value decorum a bit differently. For me, once you've scammed people, you lose the right to politely spew your BS without getting called out.

Josua Zurbrügg

God bless you dude. Hope these greedy morons get slapped for fraud.

jah is mighty

Even if that Doc guy is the one behind getting her on board its hard to have sympathy for any of these people launching these coins and especially when she clearly showed no amount of sympathy for the people who got screwed. I just dont see a way were she is devoid of blame

James Linderman

I'm angry that I understand the title of this video.

James Rule

Tell me you’re afraid of looking behind the curtain without telling me.

Marcus

Of course hes not gonna answer who profited of the rug pull, because that would be a direct admission of rug pulling the project. He basically responded with "the project made a lot of money with fees, which got spent making sure the project stays alive", which without further information seems like a valid answer. Don't understand me wrong, I'm not siding with them, I'm just saying that instead of asking who profited of the rug pull over and over again, he could've just asked how much money was left after expenditures and who got that money. Or he could've asked why they are on the cayman islands, which in itself is sketchy. I'm sure their answer to that would also just be corporate bullshit, but at least then it would be obvious to everyone. Now for someone new to the topic it seems like coffee beraded some guy who didn't get the time answer the questions. I know just as much about the topic, as I did before watching the video, because it was just one guy screaming accusations and one guy not getting the time to finish his sentence. That's not the goal of journalism.

Marcel Z.

Thank you Coffee! Keep up the great work!

Fellhawk

Lol tell me you know nothing about Bitcoin without telling me.

Brian Fenech

How about the fact that you support organized crime and the Russian special terror operation just by using cryptocurrencies? That’s their only utility besides scams, and the reason why there is money to be made. Money laundering always comes with a cost.

Marcus

Nope, no way, sorry. They had plenty of time to speak, make their points, *tell them who profited from the rugpull* and didn't even begin to answer his questions! That's the problem, every time he lets them speak, they just start going on about some tangential nonsense. I'm sure if they answered his questions instead of providing more corporate bullshit blabla (as if this somehow was a "sustainable memecoin", yeah right), he'd let them have more than enough time to answer properly. As it is/was, they're just lulling you in with their stories about a better world and whatnot. And don't get me wrong, I myself could never ever be as adversarial and "aggressive" as Coffee here. But that's exactly, one hundred percent what's needed with this kind of people. Don't leave them an easy out, hound them down until they have to admit their wrongdoings.

Josua Zurbrügg

I saw it trending on x before coffee got involved cus the coin rugged and the chart was trending

alphacino

I woke up to a bunch of notifications for your tweets! People are so scummy!

JBones RVA

If you hadn't challenged them, is it feasible that this would go unnoticed by anyone at any point? I'm trying to wrap my mind around how seemingly simple & easy this could've been pulled off without triggering a regulatory red flag or some other mechanism of exposure. Regardless, you did an incredible job of systematically dismantling their rotting operational foundation upon which the house of cards resided…and all in front of a large live audience. Yet I remain baffled as to how any of their was even possible to pull off without the fear of inevitable swift (or even eventual) exposure.

Steve

Lol "right tuah jail"

Cassandra Claxton

I don't think you know much about Bitcoin. Satoshi Nakamoto has done the initial work to mine coins and most likely died without giving those coins to anyone. Bitcoin is different because no such pre mine was made , it was both the technology and the ethics of the founder which was humble enough to give us this gift and disappear without the otherwise fame and wealth.

Brian Fenech

Gotta say, love how on it you are with these guys. I only heard out about it like 3 hours ago and you’re already grilling them haha. Great work as usual!

Jac

Right tuah jail, I like that you interrupt that damage control statement. And that looks like the end of a viral sensation, say hello to “ain’t nobody got time for that” for us.

Aaron Hardy

I mean, you should probably let them speak a bit more. Give them more rope and all. Maybe decaf before going in to one of these?

Fran B

BItcoin isn't all that much different, though. Even the 'best' of these, like Bitcoin, boil down to 'the creators minted a ton of coins for themselves and their friends so they could make money off them, and if other people profit, that's fine too'. It's better than active scamming [rug-pulling, pump and dumps, etc], but I'm not aware of any *truly* ethical cryptocurrency.

Darrel Hutchins

She should stick to 💦 🍆 and not starting crypto scams 🤣🤣🤣🤣

Gary Woodhead

Please don't give up on Bitcoin because 99.999% of crypto is scam. It's even more important to appreciate Bitcoin because of this shit

Brian Fenech

Yea, I agree with what other comments are saying. I have been following your work for years now and have the greatest respect for you. And I know it can be frustrating watching these scammers get away with stealing millions of dollars from innocent people but you have got to tone it down during some of these interviews and at least let the other guy speak and have a minute or two to answer your questions. You constantly interrupting them and rapid firing questions without giving them a minute to respond makes you come across as very unprofessional and doesn't really prove your case. If anything it undermines your argument because if I don't know the facts, you just sound like one of those crazy gotcha journalist while that Hailey's person's manager ended up looking like the reasonable person since they were trying to answer your questions but you weren't giving them the proper time to answer and you kept interrupting them.

Alexandar04

I love your work, and I appreciate that you don't let the people you interview push you around. It's got to be difficult to do these interviews. When I listen to your interviews I wonder if their would be a way you could be less adversarial? Give people a little time to talk even if they are lying. From my experience if you let people talk they will often accidentally tell a version of the truth.

The Last Scientist

Siding with anyone in the crypto space is a bad idea for literally anybody lmao. Butthurt over journalism, and as he said, they just rugpulled people for over a million bucks I'd be pretty heated too

UserNameHere

You're doing the Lord's work

avfusion

They can't even answer a basic question lol 😅 they think we don't see everything in the public ledger

Thomas Robinson

ROFL

Angel Barranco

Beautiful!!!

Wesley Patrick

This was truly tiring to listen to. I love your work, but please let people talk. How are you supposed to catch them in a lie or anything like that when you don't even let him talk. This also makes you seem like the unreasonable guy, even to your fans like me. I'm sure this project is shady as fuck, but if I didn't know you from plenty of your other videos, I would've probably sided with the other guy. Just because you sounded so irritating.

Marcel Z.

God damn. What a bunch of scumbags

Etadik_Was_Taken

Sorry honey, I can't pay the mortgage this month. I spent all our money on hawk tuah coin.

alphacino

When they start talking over someone, that's when you know they're nervous.

TunkJib75

“It’s not us, it’s The Fund” 🫠

Xavier Lozinguez

I heard that and 🚩🚩🚩 went up right away.

NeroPrime

"a foundation on the Cayman Islands" a true feat of self-snitch mastery

Asatas

"Okay, then why the fuck are you on!" She really got you there.

LKM

Coffee, love a lot of your last work. I do have to say from a few these last months though. Journalism > interrupting barrage. I think there is a way to get it properly

Brandon William Thomas

"Not us! It's not a rug!" Sure haven't heard that one in every single Coffeezilla investigation since I found his channel, lol. The only thing missing was "I'm a huge fan of yours". XD

Andrew Coleman

Fat she-hulk when?

Alt-Daemon

“A foundation in the Cayman Island” 🤣

Xavier Lozinguez

Don't be so difficult, Coffee! Can't just you let them quietly profit of their uneducated fan base?

Martin Elberts

if you say its not a scam enough times does it make it less of a scam 🤔

James Linderman

On one hand, phenomenal work as always! On the other hand... I'm so sorry this is something you have to even spend time on. This is just so stupid all the way around...

Rox

Was waiting for this push notification lol. Hoping for a longer breakdown once more sunlight exposes them.

Grant

LOL nice work. Good to see them squirm.

George Donnelly

That girl sounds so spoiled, and these people are arrogant and brash. I’m so sorry you have to deal with people like this all the time. Massive respect👍

Buff Rubber Duck

Gotta love the internet 😭

Noor

Imagine being a prolific online journalist on YouTube and you have to investigate someone who got famous for saying “hawk tuah”

Ecksy

Damn you work fast! 😂 I was listening live and you killed it bro

Always Marco


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