Final 12 months, Maya Parbhoe shortly turned well-known within the worldwide Bitcoin group as she offered herself to the world as a presidential candidate in her country, Suriname. She vowed to combat corruption in a rustic rife with it and to make bitcoin authorized tender in Suriname to assist get the nation’s residents out of monetary “survival mode.”
Parbhoe’s story as an underdog candidate shortly gained traction as she made her case for the way she may assist Suriname as president each on-line and in particular person at conferences equivalent to Bitcoin Amsterdam.
Outstanding members of the Bitcoin group equivalent to Bitcoin mining analyst and management coach Daniel Batten have vouched for Parbhoe in latest months, whereas Jan3 CEO Samson Mow was the one who encouraged Parbhoe to run for president. I, too, helped bring attention to her candidacy.
Nonetheless, in latest weeks, some cracks have began to type in Parbhoe’s story. Stories from those that have visited the nation say that the picture that Parbhoe has been projecting of herself and her candidacy to the world could also be partially an phantasm.
The reviews declare that Parbhoe has overstated her odds of changing into president of Suriname to the worldwide group and that her political messaging inside the nation has had little to nothing to do with Bitcoin.
What’s extra, some reviews that at the moment are reaching the worldwide Bitcoin viewers additionally contend that Parbhoe’s candidacy will not be well-known inside Suriname. And whereas Parbhoe has positioned herself as an advocate for these inside her nation who’re struggling financially, one supply advised Bitcoin Journal that she has disdain for the nation’s poor.
On prime of that, reported intel from the U.S. authorities estimates that Parbhoe could also be working as “controlled opposition,” a political determine who serves as a placeholder for people who they purport to be in opposition to. In line with Bitcoin Journal’s supply, the identical reported intel states Parbhoe’s father was knowingly in enterprise with drug traffickers and cash launderers and that there’s additionally an opportunity that the financial institution accounts for Parbhoe’s corporations are getting used to launder cash.
Earlier than diving deeper into the latter allegations, it’s first essential to grasp the depths of corruption in Suriname and the way Parbhoe claims to be an antidote to it.
Parbhoe’s Anti-Corruption Political Marketing campaign
In line with a 2022 report from the U.S. Department of State, virtually each sector of Suriname’s authorities has been accused of corruption. These sectors embody the central financial institution of Suriname and state-owned corporations, together with the nation’s nationwide airline, Surinam Airways, and the federal government medical insurance firm, SZF.
A few of the highest-ranking people within the nation have additionally been concerned in corruption, because the nation’s present vice chairman has been convicted of drug trafficking and the nation’s former president, Dési Bouterse, was convicted of drug trafficking and murder and sentenced to twenty years in jail.
Parbhoe billed herself as an anti-corruption presidential candidate in Suriname’s upcoming elections, that are slated to happen on Could 25, 2025.
As a part of her messaging, she typically mentions how her father was murdered for talking out in opposition to corruption within the nation, and she or he says that she needs to hold on his legacy by talking out in opposition to corruption in Suriname, as effectively.
The a part of this story that Parbhoe has unnoticed as she’s recounted it time and time once more, although, is that her father had two Colombian companions in his on line casino enterprise who he knew had been additionally concerned in drug trafficking and cash laundering. In line with a former senior advisor for Parbhoe’s marketing campaign, Shamay, Parbhoe is conscious that her father knew he was in enterprise with these folks, as she has advised him as a lot.
Micah Dunford, a retired Inexperienced Beret and CEO of Greyscale Protection, an organization that Parbhoe contracted to guard her throughout the starting of April, when she gave beginning to her daughter, knowledgeable Bitcoin Journal that reported intel from the U.S. authorities states that Parbhoe’s father was knowingly concerned with “nefarious actors” and was murdered by “narco terrorists.”
[Author’s note: Dunford would like to make it clear that he only shared the information above as well as other information in this piece about a client of his because he is a Bitcoin enthusiast and feels that Parbhoe is doing a great disservice to the Bitcoin community and to Bitcoin’s reputation.]
Once I initially interviewed Parbhoe in July 2024, she supplied an account of her father’s enterprise dealings that didn’t embody his knowingly being in enterprise with drug traffickers and cash launderers. She caught to her authentic story and denied that her father was in enterprise with two Colombian drug traffickers once I lately reached out to her to ask her in regards to the matter.
“My father was in business with Dorsett Resorts,” Parbhoe advised Bitcoin Journal through e mail.
“It was a publicly traded company in the U.S. and he bought $500,000 in shares so he could be in investor meetings. My father went to the then Minister of Justice, Santhokhi, and all authorities, including the three letter agencies, when he realized what was going on,” she added.
“His case against de [De] Surinaamsche Bank is currently being delayed by the president at our highest court of justice. The case against the CEO, COO and Manager from Dorsett goes to court on April 28th. I am his only living heir fighting this case.”
If Parbhoe’s father was knowingly in enterprise with drug traffickers and if Parbhoe knew that he knew this and continues to omit it from the story of her father’s homicide that she tells the media, what she’s doing is a part of a broader pattern on the subject of among the tales she tells — together with the one about her changing into president of Suriname.
Suriname’s Electoral System
In Suriname’s political system, a parliamentary democracy, voters elect candidates to symbolize them in parliament, the 51-member Nationwide Meeting.
Traditionally, most voters vote for the chief of a political occasion, and if that chief received sufficient votes for a couple of seat, the extra seats went to members of their similar occasion in predetermined order primarily based on their place on the occasion’s candidate record — the upper on the record, the higher the percentages of profitable a parliamentary seat.
Though it was technically attainable for a candidate decrease on the record to be elected into parliament straight if sufficient folks vote on this candidate particularly (reasonably than the occasion chief), this hardly ever occurred.
As soon as parliamentarians had been elected, coalitions would type in parliament, and its members would then vote on a president. The Nationwide Meeting would then elect the president by a two-thirds vote — 34 of 51.
This dynamic will partially shift in upcoming elections, although, as Suriname is implementing a brand new “one person, one vote” system.
Suriname’s New Electoral System: One Individual, One Vote
In August 2020, the Constitutional Court docket of Suriname dominated the previous electoral regulation in Suriname unconstitutional in that it violated the precept of 1 particular person, one vote, in response to the aforementioned 2022 report from the U.S. Division of State.
The doc states that “the court found that votes in rural, less populated districts outweighed those in urban, more populated areas, since it required far fewer votes to win a seat for the National Assembly in rural districts [and it] mandated that the government and National Assembly amend the legislation as soon as possible for the 2025 elections to take place on time.”
Beneath the brand new system, every voter votes for one member of parliament, and every occasion has 51 candidates for the 51 seats of parliament.
Seats are divided between the completely different political events primarily based on the whole variety of votes on all candidates for these events. These seats then go to the candidates of every of those events that bought probably the most votes individually. So, if a political occasion will get (say) 5 seats in parliament, these 5 seats will go to the 5 candidates of that occasion with probably the most particular person votes; their rating on the occasion’s candidate record is irrelevant.
Any group of not less than seven members of parliament (no matter occasion affiliation) can submit a candidate for president. Parliament then votes primarily based on that record of candidates, and a two-thirds majority vote determines who wins the presidency.
Parbhoe’s Technique To Grow to be President
Parbhoe, who will not be the pinnacle of the political occasion with which she’s affiliated, the National Party of Suriname (NPS), is trying to capitalize on this new system by aiming to get as many votes as attainable within the common election.
She mentioned that she would want 5,380 votes to win a seat in parliament, which she believes she will be able to get. (This appears logical in that 283,834 people voted in Suriname’s 2020 election, and if every of the 51 candidates elected to parliament acquired 5,380 votes, this is able to imply that 274,380 folks voted, which may be very near the voter turnout from the earlier election. Additionally, below the previous electoral system, Parbhoe would have wanted a minimum of 7,000 votes as a candidate primarily based in Paramaribo, the biggest constituency within the nation.)
A poll performed on April 21, 2025 exhibits that NPS might win 10 seats in parliament (7 greater than they currently have), however the ballot doesn’t point out which of NPS’s candidates are hottest.
Nonetheless, this doesn’t matter a lot to Parbhoe anyway as a result of profitable a seat in parliament is what she calls a “worst case scenario.”
It is because her aim isn’t to turn out to be a member of parliament — it’s to turn out to be president.
“I am not running for a seat in the National Assembly,” she wrote in an e mail to me.
Parbhoe is aiming for a best-case state of affairs by which she will get probably the most votes within the nation, as “usually, the candidate with the most votes gets elected by members of parliament to become president,” in response to her. (What she didn’t point out, although, is that the candidate who virtually all the time will get probably the most votes is the chief of the most important political occasion.)
She acknowledged that the chief of NPS, Gregory Rusland, is one in all her greatest opponents. A report exhibits that in a latest ballot on the preferred presidential candidates in Suriname, Rusland ranked fourth. (Parbhoe wasn’t talked about within the report.)
Parbhoe believes that a part of her edge is that she’s a youthful candidate (She is 37 years previous). She famous that Rusland is over 60 years of age, whereas nearly all of the voters within the nation are below the age of 45.
Parbhoe additionally added that “most of the candidates that have announced that they are running for president have an equal shot [of winning] as I do,” with out commenting on what these odds are.
The Decreased Significance of Rank Inside Political Events in Suriname
In a Reddit post on April 13, Michel Greijmans, a businessman primarily based in Curaçao who visited Suriname for work in February, commented that Parbhoe has much less of an opportunity of profitable the presidency as a result of she is ranked quantity 21 inside the NPS.
What Greijmans didn’t acknowledge, although — in all probability as a result of he was not aware of this info — is that Parbhoe, by her personal account, strategically chosen this rating of quantity 21 as an ode to Bitcoin, as a result of rank inside a celebration is generally irrelevant now anyway.
Parbhoe first knowledgeable me of her doing this through textual content weeks again when her rank inside the occasion was first introduced, and she or he reiterated this to me in our most up-to-date communications.
Had she not chosen quantity 21, she mentioned she would have opted for a rating on the backside of the record of her occasion (quantity 50 or 51). In Surinamese parliamentary system — not less than within the older model of it — when a candidate selects the bottom rating inside a celebration, it’s a sign that they aren’t essentially working for a seat in parliament, however are on the record simply to endorse a specific occasion. (Such a candidate is typically known as a Lijstduwer, which interprets to “list pusher,” and it exists within the Surinamese and Dutch parliamentary programs. Checklist pushers typically embody celebrities, artists, or athletes who don’t have any intention of serving in parliament.)
Such a candidate is typically known as a Lijstduwer, which interprets to “list pusher,” and it exists within the Surinamese and Dutch parliamentary programs. Checklist pushers typically embody celebrities, artists, or athletes who don’t have any intention of serving in parliament. (Such a candidate in Suriname’s present electoral race is Ingrid Bouterse-Waldring, widow of the late Dési Bouterse, the aforementioned former president of Suriname. She’s ranked quantity 51 inside the NPS.)
So, apart from Parbhoe’s being a brand new, younger candidate, what else is she doing to distinguish herself from the competitors?
Effectively, she’s broadcasted to the worldwide Bitcoin group that she plans to interchange Suriname’s nationwide forex, which has an average yearly inflation rate of 8.7% and which spiked as high as 59% in 2020, with bitcoin.
Nonetheless, those that’ve visited Parbhoe in Suriname and who’ve reported again to the worldwide Bitcoin group have mentioned that Bitcoin is hardly a part of her messaging inside the nation and that her technique to interchange the nationwide forex with bitcoin received’t work.
The Actuality On The Floor: Parbhoe’s Lack Of A Bitcoin Technique
Greijmans, in his aforementioned Reddit submit, talked about that, in his expertise on the bottom in Suriname, nobody outdoors of Bitcoin circles knew who Parbhoe was and that these inside Bitcoin circles within the nation didn’t need to speak about her.
Dr. Jack Kruse, who’d met with Parbhoe on the bottom in Suriname in February and even gave a nationally-televised discuss on reforming Suriname at an NPS occasion throughout this go to, claimed on X that Greijmans’ expertise was corresponding to his personal.
I adopted up with Greijmans to be taught extra about his expertise on the bottom.
Greijmans’ Take
“The fact that the people I spoke to didn’t want to talk about her raised concerns for me,” Greijmans advised Bitcoin Journal.
Greijmans didn’t communicate up about his expertise instantly after his go to, although, as a result of he felt it was attainable that members of the native Bitcoin group had been merely making an attempt to distance the group that they had been constructing from her marketing campaign.
He additionally famous that members of the Bitcoin group on the bottom in Suriname are doing “tremendous work” and that he doesn’t need the injury that Parbhoe is perhaps doing to blow again on the group there. (Kemal Yaşar, Advertising Director for Blink Wallet, confirmed that the variety of transactions by Blink customers in Suriname elevated 2,389% from July 2024 to March 2025.)
To Parbhoe’s credit score, she established the Bitcoin community that Greijmans visited, Bitcoin Sranan, in 2021.
Greijmans additionally famous that as of the second week of April, Parbhoe had revamped her website, eradicating all claims that she is working for president.
His major situation with Parbhoe was that she was projecting a picture to the world about her candidacy that’s removed from the truth on the bottom.
He mentioned that one in all his motivations in writing the Reddit piece was to let the worldwide group know that Parbhoe gave the impression to be benefiting from the truth that it was simple for her to undertaking a sure picture to a global viewers, as her actions are troublesome to audit for many who aren’t on the bottom in Suriname.
“I wanted to at least alert people like, ‘Hey, listen, you’re dealing with a culture, a political system, a country that’s very opaque to its international audience,’” mentioned Greijmans.
Parbhoe’s Chief Financial Advisor’s Take
Rahim Taghizadegan, Parbhoe’s chief financial advisor, claimed in a recent X post that, when he visited Suriname, he additionally discovered that the truth on the bottom was completely different from the picture Parbhoe had been projecting to the world.
“It did not surprise me in the slightest that the on-the-ground reality — regarding both Bitcoin adoption and Maya’s actual role — fell significantly short of the media hype,” wrote Taghizadegan.
Taghizadegan additionally talked about that he’d communicated to Parbhoe that her plan to make bitcoin the first forex in Suriname wasn’t sensible, an evaluation she wasn’t keen on.
“Maya disliked my assessment that her proposal to convert the national currency directly into [b]itcoin by governmental decree was unfeasible,” he wrote.
Moreover, Taghizadegan additionally famous Parbhoe’s shortcomings as a businesswoman.
“Her business track record revealed deficiencies in judgment and execution, but this was hardly unexpected and quite typical for someone transitioning into politics,” he added.
Parbhoe’s Former Senior Marketing campaign Advisor’s Take
Shamay, who first met Parbhoe at Adopting Bitcoin El Salvador in November 2024 and started speaking together with her quickly after, visited Parbhoe in Suriname twice, as soon as in January and as soon as in February of this 12 months, additionally voiced issues about Parbhoe primarily based on her lack of capability to execute in addition to her poor enterprise acumen.
Whereas he was with Parbhoe on the bottom, Parbhoe tearfully advised him that the businesses she’d based — Quickship Logistics, Icarus Geosystems, and Daedalus Labs — weren’t worthwhile, however that she needed to sustain the picture that they had been profitable or she wouldn’t be revered as a younger girl in politics in Suriname. He added that she was very fearful that this truth would possibly get out and spoil her fame.
One other supply aware of the matter confirmed that Quickship Logistics will not be worthwhile, and that Parbhoe makes use of funds from the corporate to pay for private bills.
Shamay was additionally taken again at how disorganized Parbhoe’s political marketing campaign was.
He mentioned that the marketing campaign was being run from her front room sofa with a number of unpaid workforce members and that there was “no discussion about bitcoin.”
“Parbhoe did not have a Bitcoin platform within Suriname,” mentioned Shamay.
Due to what he noticed in his visits with Parbhoe, he withheld a mid-six-figure donation that he deliberate to present to her marketing campaign.
A Greyscale Safety Group Members’ Take
One of many members from Greyscale’s safety workforce who went to Suriname wasn’t as involved about Parbhoe’s lack of concentrate on bitcoin, which he nonetheless famous, as he was with how Parbhoe handled the much less lucky within the nation.
“She speaks to people based on how they dress and how they present themselves,” the safety workforce member advised Bitcoin Journal.
“If they are poor, you can tell that she does not give a flying shit about them. We would walk through the streets, and if somebody walked past her or walked too close to her, she would act like they were dirty — she did not like these types of people being around her,” he added.
(Taghizadegan additionally commented on Parbhoe’s conduct towards others in his X submit. He wrote that “She was unkind to many people.”)
Parbhoe additionally demeaned and belittled each this safety workforce member and his associate on the bottom, he mentioned.
In line with the safety workforce member, she requested him how a lot cash he made, and when he advised her, she responded by saying, “I didn’t know you’re one of the poors.”
The safety workforce member additionally famous that Parbhoe’s critique of him appeared ironic since Parbhoe herself didn’t appear to have a lot cash (although, he reported that she owns a Mercedes-Benz), and virtually each supply for this piece mentioned that Parbhoe both owes them cash, owes somebody that they know cash, or owes somebody with whom she works cash.
In line with the safety workforce member, she repeatedly requested to both borrow cash from him or for him to pay for issues like her groceries or dinner at a restaurant as a result of she couldn’t afford them.
Paradoxically, Parbhoe claims that having to pay Greyscale, which supplied its providers to her at a reduction, is a part of the rationale she doesn’t have the funds she must run her marketing campaign correctly or to assist these she claims to assist.
“[My] chances [of winning] decrease if I pay companies like Greyscale 3x for [a] contract and they deplete us out of funds,” wrote Parbhoe, alluding to the notion that Greyscale had overcharged her.
“I have projects for the teachers (painting schools, materials for the kids), orphanages (we still deliver food daily and have also planned sports/play days for them) and nurses (they’ve planned delivery of 70 bags with products new moms need) with deadlines and now less resources to complete,” she added.
“If I need to pick between airtime, billboards, and actual projects that help people, I will always pick the latter.”
(Shamay advised me that she lately bought a billboard for her marketing campaign for $35,000.)
Parbhoe additionally suffers from insomnia, in response to the safety workforce member, and each hour and a half throughout the night time, Parbhoe would come out of her room and switch the lights on within the room by which the safety workforce members had been sleeping on couches.
“She would flip the lights on and say ‘If I’m awake, you’re awake,’” mentioned the safety workforce member.
What’s extra, early one morning, she made the safety workforce member with whom I spoke transfer to the ground to sleep.
“She came out to the couch and said, ‘You’re in my spot — get out. You can sleep on the floor,’” mentioned the safety workforce member. “For the rest of the time that we stayed at that house, I just slept on the floor in the kitchen, and it was horrible.”
Moreover, this safety workforce additionally mentioned that Parbhoe turned paranoid that her stepfather was making an attempt to kill her as a result of he’d left a cereal field on a panini press in her hospital room. She thought he was making an attempt to start out a hearth subsequent to her mattress.
This kind of paranoia and irrational considering had began weeks earlier, and the broader world began to get a glimpse of it on April 2, 2025.
The SOS and ‘Help’ Messages On X
On April 2, Parbhoe posted each a “Help” message on X and likewise recorded a 6-minute House entitled “Life and family under threat. SOS,” which didn’t characteristic any proof of a risk. Each the tweet and the House had been solely lately deleted.
Many within the Bitcoin group who’re on X turned involved, as there have been no reviews of her standing for the hours that adopted.
Hours after the unique messages, she posted one other message on X by which she said “The US Secret Service is here in Suriname to protect me and to help me uncover corruption.” (This message has since been deleted.)
Days later, Parbhoe said in an X submit that it was as a result of she was “under heavy medication and recovering from childbirth” that she inaccurately posted in regards to the Secret Service defending her. The latter portion of that assertion is unfaithful, although, as a result of Parbhoe hadn’t given beginning by the point she’d printed the X submit.
Moreover, two sources confirmed that Parbhoe was below no instant risk when she made the preliminary two posts.
Hiring Greyscale
Within the days main as much as Parbhoe’s getting into the hospital in preparation to present beginning, she grew more and more paranoid that “they” had been going to kill or hurt her whereas she was giving beginning.
“They” included the hospital employees and her political opposition. Dunford surmised that Parbhoe’s emotional state on this scenario was a results of a mix of her being each paranoid and irrational partially as a result of she was being “controlled by the opposition.”
“She is under their thumb,” mentioned Dunford. “They most likely wanted to cut ties because she wasn’t endorsed to run a campaign and/or went off the reservation either politically or businesswise with whomever she is in bed with — which is most probably a combo of government [officials] and narcos, which are synonymous in Suriname.” (Extra on this within the following part.)
Round this time, Parbhoe despatched repeated erratic messages to the cofounder of Bitcasa Homes, Amanda Daybreak.
Daybreak had been launched to Parbhoe a 12 months and a half prior, and the 2 had labored collectively in a small capability as their respective corporations (Daedalus Labs for Parbhoe) had been targeted on the intersection of bitcoin and actual property.
On March 26, 2025, Parboe had reached out to Daybreak, frantically claiming that her life was being threatened.
Daybreak was rattled by the desperation in Parbhoe’s voice. (I can relate to how Daybreak seemingly felt, as I’ve acquired my fair proportion of panicked messages from Parbhoe, particularly as her little one’s due date approached. She has a robust capability to arouse sympathy and/or empathy from these with whom she engages.)
Daybreak, who believed deeply in Parbhoe’s alleged pro-Bitcoin mission in Suriname, reached out to a contact at Bitcoin Veterans, stating that she wanted to shortly discover safety for Parbhoe.
That contact linked her with Dunford at Greyscale.
Dunford was aware of Parbhoe’s purported mission to convey Bitcoin to the folks of Suriname and agreed to supply his firm’s providers to Parbhoe whereas waiving his private charge.
Within the following days, Dunford despatched two of his workforce members to protect Parbhoe, one a fight medic who’s able to delivering infants, as she gave beginning.
Parbhoe didn’t signal the contract with Greyscale, as she claimed she was being compelled to take action below duress, however Dunford despatched assist regardless. (Parbhoe by no means did signal the contract, which included a nondisclosure settlement. That is another excuse Dunford is comfy sharing details about the ordeal.)
Peter Kroll, founding father of BTC Curaçao, despatched bitcoin to Parbhoe for the aim of paying the Greyscale invoice.
Kroll additionally donated 0.5 bitcoin to Parbhoe throughout the latter a part of 2024 and urged others to comply with his lead by donating, although, he now regrets doing so.
He mentioned that he very a lot believed in Parbhoe — somebody he’d met by way of the digital Bitcoin group Eenentwintig. He added that she had credibility as a result of she’d “put time into the Bitcoin community.”
Parbhoe gave beginning the day the Greyscale guards arrived.
And whereas Dunford’s males had been with Parbhoe within the hospital and again at her residence, a contact within the U.S. authorities shared intel on Parbhoe with Dunford.
That intel included details about Parbhoe being “controlled opposition” and doubtlessly being concerned with cash laundering.
Managed Opposition
Dunford shared that he was greatly surprised when he acquired this info on Parbhoe, because it shattered his phantasm of her.
He needed to consider she was the subsequent Nayib Bukele — one other pro-Bitcoin president — however what he realized from the intel modified his views on Parbhoe.
“She’s linked in with nefarious people,” Dunford advised Bitcoin Journal. “She’s controlled opposition — it’s not a real candidacy.”
As talked about, managed opposition refers to a scenario the place voters really feel they’ve an choice in an election, however the choice is both owned financially or coerced into complying with the sitting energy in some method.
In Parbhoe’s case, Dunford believes that each are at play.
“The powers that be in the country have coerced her through financial manipulation and they own her,” mentioned Dunford.
“This way, they could ensure that even if she got into some sort of power, that they would never be extradited to the EU,” he added. (Once I first spoke with Parbhoe in July 2024, she mentioned that the leaders of her nation concern extradition, as a result of, if extradited, they might be tried for the worldwide crimes they’ve allegedly dedicated.)
“She puts on a policy platform that would make the people think, ‘Yeah, we’re going to fight the powers — we’re going to implement Bitcoin, blah, blah, blah, and that just isn’t true because they are pulling her puppet strings.”
Dunford additionally shared that he’s a specialist in managed opposition and knowledge operations (i.e., propaganda campaigns). He added that he trains particular operations forces (e.g., Inexperienced Berets) on these subjects.
On the night earlier than the 2 Greyscale safety workforce members left Suriname, “unknown entities, perhaps members of national security services,” tried a compelled entry into the resort room by which the 2 Greyscale workforce members had been staying to “change a lightbulb,” because the unknown individuals put it, in response to Dunford.
“Speaking as a guy that does this, if you have bad placement on a microphone or a camera, you’re not going to know that until you get back and you start to assess the audio and video — you might realize you can’t hear the conversation or that there’s something blocking the camera,” defined Dunford.
“So, they sent five really burly dudes to get into the hotel room to fix the batteries and the light or whatever it was, but we assessed that they were making a battery, camera, or microphone adjustment to correct their initial placement.”
I used to be in contact with these two Greyscale workforce members through textual content as this example within the resort performed out, they usually appeared genuinely involved about their security.
With that mentioned, I used to be not capable of finding additional info to corroborate that Parbhoe is “controlled opposition,” as Dunford put it.
Is Parbhoe Concerned With Cash Laundering?
In line with Dunford, intel derived from a synthetic intelligence system constructed by the U.S. authorities states that there’s a extremely credible probability that the financial institution accounts for Quickship Logistics and Icarus Geosystems are getting used to launder funds.
A supply aware of financial institution data at Quickship Logistics mentioned he didn’t get the sense that this kind of exercise was occurring by way of the corporate’s financial institution accounts, although.
If one in all Parbhoe’s accounts had been getting used for such exercise, it might extra seemingly be the account for Icarus Geosystems, an organization that builds infrastructure equivalent to roads in distant areas of the nation.
Parbhoe is the monetary director of this firm, and six-figure sums of cash ceaselessly move by way of a checking account for the corporate, as per financial institution data obtained by Bitcoin Journal.
I requested Parbhoe through e mail what among the six-figure deposits had been for through e mail and she or he responded with the next:
“Though Icarus is a private company, I can share that that’s revenue from projects currently in progress at Newmont and housing development and a retaining wall/channel project in Guyana.”
(Newmont is brief for Newmont Corporation. The corporate has a subsidiary known as Newmont Suriname, LLC — previously Suriname Gold Firm, LLC — which is {a partially} state-owned firm.)
An organization with the phrase “Newmont” in its identify did in actual fact make a six-figure deposit on February 14, 2025.
In my analysis, I couldn’t discover something to substantiate or corroborate the notion that funds are being laundered by way of Parbhoe’s corporations’ financial institution accounts, nor that she is concerned with cash laundering in every other means.
Delusional, However Not A Legal Mastermind
Quite a lot of sources described Parbhoe as “delusional,” “narcissistic,” and “mentally unstable,” however virtually all of them had been reluctant to name her a felony.
“She’s more delusional than fraudulent,” is how one supply put it. “She’s also very good at spinning the truth.”
In my private interactions with Parbhoe, I’ve witnessed her stretch the reality on quite a lot of events.
An instance of that is final 12 months at Bitcoin Amsterdam the place I overheard her inform somebody that she is an Oxford Alumni, when, in actuality, she’s solely accomplished a weeks-long certificates program on the college — not a correct diploma.
The place Did the Bitcoin Donations Go?
In line with Mick, the founding father of Geyser Fund, Parbhoe’s Geyser marketing campaign raised roughly $70,000 value of bitcoin, as per bitcoin at a worth of roughly $90,000.
(Different donors additionally donated to her marketing campaign outdoors of Geyser, however these quantities haven’t been made public.)
Due to latest reviews of Parbhoe’s lack of forthrightness, Geyser Fund has taken down Parbhoe’s “Maya for President” donations web page.
For a while, Parbhoe printed a marketing campaign funds tracker, and she or he appeared to take delight in being clear about the place the funds had been going.
She’s lately taken down the campaign funds tracker, although.
Once I requested Parbhoe for an summary of bills, she supplied me with a hyperlink to this document (screenshot under), which solely has eight line gadgets.
Taghizadegan talked about in his X submit that some funds had been spent on bringing famend economist Arthur Laffer to Suriname to publicly voice his assist for Parbhoe on the bottom and on digicam.
Parbhoe supplied extra info on this in my e mail communication together with her.
“Arthur Laffer was engaged by a third party and paid by him, John, who himself negotiated terms with Dr. Laffer,” wrote Parbhoe. “He is engaged to be economic advisor once [I’m] elected.”
(Parbhoe didn’t make it clear who “John” was, however judging by the context within the e mail, it appears he was a significant donor to the marketing campaign.)
Whereas in Suriname, Parbhoe performed an on-camera interview with Laffer, which was printed through the Bitcoin Journal YouTube channel.
(When Parbhoe reached out to me about publishing the video, which I helped facilitate, she didn’t point out that Laffer was paid to go to Suriname.)
Within the interview with Parbhoe, Laffer spoke about Parbhoe’s plans for Bitcoin adoption on the bottom in Suriname.
Nonetheless, there are not any reviews of him talking about Bitcoin adoption with these with whom he engaged whereas on the bottom in Suriname, even though he spoke with NPS about cash and authorities financing.
“He gave a presentation for the NPS, which had a great impact on how the party views taxes and monetary incentives,” wrote Parbhoe.
Parbhoe additionally paid Daniel Batten $2,500 in complete, although half of that funding got here from Daedalus Labs, in response to her.
Parbhoe wrote that Batten’s providers had been useful partially as a result of the respiration methods he taught her helped her to deal with a scenario that occurred roughly one week earlier than she gave beginning by which she was hospitalized and claims she was taken off of IV and left with out water whereas she wanted to be hydrated. She communicated this story to me shortly after this occurred and believed it was an try on her life.
Shamay, who claims to have labored for her professional bono, mentioned that she’d agreed to pay her marketing campaign supervisor $15,000 per 30 days, however her most up-to-date marketing campaign supervisor stop after solely being paid $8,500 after two months.
Parbhoe’s aforementioned billboard expense price the marketing campaign $35,000, and she or he paid Greyscale $27,000 for its providers.
Parbhoe Continues On
Parbhoe continues to marketing campaign regardless of the challenges she’s confronted as of late. Nonetheless, she additionally says that the beginning of her little one has put the election in perspective for her.
“These last few weeks, I have undergone more trauma than I have endured my entire life,” wrote Parbhoe.
“The thought of losing my daughter, if you had given me 21 million Bitcoin, I would have spent it all to save her life. No election is worth her life,” she added.
“At this point, I don’t care if I win.”
Parbhoe additionally said that whether or not or not she wins the election, she’ll proceed to combat for Bitcoin adoption in Suriname previous election day.
“I’ll do my best, I’ll fight for [my daughter’s] future and continue beyond May 25th,” wrote Parbhoe.
She concluded her last e mail to me with a quote from Bitcoin’s creator, Satoshi Nakamoto:
“If you don’t believe me or don’t get it, I don’t have time to try to convince you, sorry.”
What Parbhoe appeared to overlook in making this last assertion is that campaigning for political workplace is actually the method of convincing folks that you just’re the correct particular person for the job. And, proper now, many, together with quite a lot of former members of her workforce, don’t appear to really feel that she is.
I don’t know for certain whether or not Parbhoe is managed opposition or if she’s simply somebody struggling to execute a imaginative and prescient.
However I do know that belief is a troublesome factor to win again — particularly on the subject of the Bitcoin group — and her lack of forthrightness has achieved appreciable injury to her fame.
Having been in contact with Parbhoe on a semi-regular foundation for the previous eight months, I’d think about, in her thoughts, her plan regarded one thing like this:
- Announce underdog candidacy and leverage connections within the Bitcoin area.
- Bitcoiners from all over the world come to my assist with donations and different forms of marketing campaign help.
- Forge a slender path to victory to highest political place in Suriname, regardless of very low odds of such an final result.
A few of this performed out. The issue was that many who supported her ultimately rescinded their efforts after they noticed up shut what was occurring with Parbhoe.
However probably the most maddening a part of this complete state of affairs is that if Dunford is correct in that Parbhoe is “controlled opposition” — that her marketing campaign has been little greater than a ruse and that she’s working with “nefarious actors” behind the scenes — then nearly all of this piece was written for naught and Parbhoe ought to merely be labeled as the primary main scammer of this cycle.
If so, please settle for my apology for serving to to platform Parbhoe through Bitcoin Journal.
And whether or not that is the case or not, this example has been a robust reminder of the favored Bitcoin-related adage: Don’t belief, confirm.
A few of us — myself included — shouldn’t so readily consider that sure characters on this area, particularly political figures, are all the things they purport to be.
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