Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, has been actively promoting a controversial project that aims to harness solar power for Bitcoin mining in the Arizona desert. Working as a brand ambassador with Pegasus Group Holdings, she was paid more than £200,000. As with all projects that utilize solar generators on such a large scale, the project’s scale has generated interest and scrutiny in equal measure.
This groundbreaking effort taps into thousands of solar powered generators. It hopes to electrify the expensive computational work that goes into Bitcoin mining specifically. Ferguson’s contract guarantees her first-class travel and five-star lodging. Moreover, she is treated to professional beauty services in preparation for up to four separate networking events.
Jay Bloom, a principle in this effort, was newsworthy in July 2019. It was his second visit to Buckingham Palace. His inaugural visit came in June 2019. On this particular trip, he and his colleague Michael Evers were escorted through the palace gates in Prince Andrew’s personal vehicle. Through these visits, they had the opportunity to meet members of the royal family such as Prince Andrew and Princess Beatrice.
Bloom has faced his share of controversy. When he first made headlines for all the wrong reasons, it was for opening a Mafia-themed museum in Las Vegas. This business was soon under fire with claims of default and fraud directed at financiers for the “mob experience” installation. This dramatic backdrop casts doubt on the integrity of his efforts.
Ferguson received a huge payout. At the same time, Jay Bloom has taken £60,500 from Alphabet, to which Mr. Gleave and his connected firms are tied. Observers are scratching their heads about these Thursday-September-22-financial-inquisitions. That worry is amplified due to the fact that Ferguson further earned equity in Pegasus Group Holdings as part of her contract.
Ferguson’s new public role also involved attending a “ground breaking” ceremony for the new solar project with motivational speaker Tony Robbins. Though she seemed to take satisfaction in being in Pegasus’s orbit, not all the players are so excited to be associated. Michael Evers remarked on the lack of effort to repay investors, stating that they “weren’t working very, very hard to get all the investors paid back.”
The company estimates that their planned facility, powered by 100% solar energy, will produce an average of $10 million in monthly revenue. In recent days, financial mismanagement has led some investors to sue Bloom and his partners. They claim that tens of millions of dollars in investor money have yet to be accounted for. Bloom is currently appealing to get a green light to appeal a tribunal’s award of $4.1 million to these investors.
The intricate web of relationships between Ferguson, Bloom, and Pegasus Group Holdings highlights the complex nature of celebrity endorsements in high-stakes industries like cryptocurrency. Ferguson is doing more than simply lending her name and reputation to the project. What this all means for anyone involved is still unclear.
“They didn’t want anyone knowing that we were meeting Elizabeth. And it was very, very brief, she was not doing super well, so it was more just like a hello and in passing. No touching or anything,” – Mr. Bloom
Though advocates and private partners paint an optimistic picture of the project’s promise and potential, many stakeholders continue to question its viability and ethicality. The contrast between Ferguson’s royal connections with Bloom’s checkered history makes for a story that is equal parts fascinating and alarming.
Ferguson’s dinner meeting with Jay Bloom in Los Angeles in March 2019 marked a significant turning point in their collaboration. That meeting would shape her future work with Pegasus Group Holdings and its big dreams.
With many of these legal battles just beginning, stakeholders from all sides will be watching closely to see how these developments play out. The mysterious and tangled web of investment ethics, celebrity endorsements, and grifts abound are sure to be analyzed deeper as this saga continues. One thing is clear.
“We were there once a month for a week to two weeks at a time and every time the relationships just kind of grew stronger and stronger and they started offering tours of different places,” – Mr. Evers