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Ms Mirchandani had also seen the archived page mentioning Stone Force Media on an affiliate portal for “Tactical Home Defense,” an e-book about defending against home intrusions.
These details put Stone Force at the heart of the mystery, with links to many other political and conspiracy products available online, including Raw Conservative Opinions, Conservative Affiliates, the ClickBank listing, and the coin itself.
Stone Force is an internet marketing company that specializes in “acquiring and monetizing audiences,” according to its Facebook page and online job postings. Among the founding partners of the company are Vlad Bolovan, who states on his Instagram profile that he lives in Bucharest, and Brandon Kelly, who states on his Facebook profile that he is from California and lives in Romania.
Stone Force, which has been operating in Bucharest since 2016 with a staff of eight, reported revenue of $1.07 million in 2019, according to business analytics firm Dun & Bradstreet. The listing on D&B, which also shows revenue for 2020, was taken offline after The Times contacted Stone Force for this article.
When reached about the coin, a Stone Force spokesperson confirmed that the company was the seller of the coin, but declined to comment further. He then forwarded an email in late 2021 that Stone Force warned affiliates against marketing the coins as a form of cryptocurrency. As of January, many ads on Telegram were still promoting the coin in this way.
Mr Bolovan and Mr Kelly also declined to comment.
At an affiliate marketing conference in 2021, Mr. Bolovan said the United States presidential election spurred tech companies to crack down on unethical and misleading advertising, known in business as “Black Hat” marketing.
“I have bad news for the Black Hats, because AI will get better and better at it,” he warned, adding that in the past he “didn’t really care about compatibility” because of Stone Force’s advertisements. usually approved. He is now considering hiring a special compliance officer to keep up with the advertising rules, he said.
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