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Occasionally, what happens in the desert should remain there.
An enterprise led by a distinguished American military leader has found itself embroiled in a $5 million cryptocurrency fraud lawsuit, allegedly stemming from a connection made at Burning Man.
Retired General Wesley Clark, a Rhodes Scholar and former NATO Supreme Commander, once received the Presidential Medal of Freedom and pursued a political career with a presidential bid in 2004.
In 2013, he began a dramatic transformation akin to a celebrity makeover, attending the renowned Burning Man festival. According to Page Six, he was also seen at the now-defunct Provocateur, a popular nightlife venue in the Meatpacking District.
During one of his ventures to Nevada’s Black Rock Desert, General Clark reportedly formed a close bond with Alex Martini-Lo Manto. Martini-Lo Manto, a tech entrepreneur from New York, entered the Blockchain sphere by founding Blockfusion.
Another tech firm, Bit Digital, invested $5 million to help Martini-Lo Manto get Blockfusion up and running.
Then Martini-Lo Manto decided to try to merge Blockfusion with tech investment firm, Blue Acquisition Corp., where his old Burner bro Gen. Clark is chairman.
Now Bit Digital accuses Martini-Lo Manto in court papers, filed in New York, of intentionally setting up the merger in such a way that it would make its $5million investment disappear like dust on the Black Rock wind — without Bit Digital getting a cent back.
Gen. Clark is not named as a defendant in the suit, but a source familiar with the filing alleges he put “his gravitas behind” the Blockfusion-Blue Acquisition Corp deal “as a favor to some friends he met at Burning Man.”
The suit is intended to stop the merger and get back the money that Bit Digital says its owed.
“Wesley goes to Burning Man to let his alternative side come out a bit, and then gets involved with these guys,” sniffed a source.
Martini-Lo Manto and a rep for Clark did not comment.