OpenEden Engages Jerome Augustine and the Braq NFT Controversy

In July, tokenized Treasury bill platform OpenEden engaged Jerome Augustine, the founder of the NFT fractionalization project Braq.

Augustine’s LinkedIn profile indicates he was the Head of Business Development and Partnerships, a title he used while appearing onstage at an event. However, a spokesperson for OpenEden clarified that he was merely a business development consultant and resigned in late October due to “misalignment of expectations.” According to a source at OpenEden, Augustine remains active in the company’s Slack as of Nov. 8.

Members of the Braq community continue to question whether Augustine will fulfill his promises to repay missing NFTs from the Braq community treasury that disappeared during his tenure.

The Disappearing NFTs

The Braq project began in November 2021, according to screenshots of Augustine’s earlier LinkedIn profile. The project launched in early 2022, with aspirations to fractionalize high-profile NFTs like Mutant Ape Yacht Club, Doodles, Otherdeeds, and Moonbirds.

Original NFTs were fractionalized into 1,000 tokens, each representing 0.1% of the original. Braq claimed it would securely custody original NFTs, isolating them from its own funds. This meant that the original NFT would be owned proportionately by all token holders.

The NFTs were supposed to be secure in a two-of-three multisig wallet, which required any two of three key holders to authorize a transaction. Nick Burns, who was involved with the project, alleges that Augustine controlled one key, his then-wife Anastasia Sacha controlled another, and he held the third.

In July 2023, a Mutant Ape NFT left the treasury for another wallet and was later used as collateral for loans on the NFT marketplace Blur. An Otherdeed NFT followed suit in October, with a similar fate befalling a Doodles NFT and a Moonbird NFT shortly thereafter. Onchain data shows that the transactions were authorized by Augustine’s wallet (braqfrnds.eth) and Sacha’s wallet (bunnycakes.eth), but not by Burns’ wallet.

Burns stated, “I logged in to check what happened to make sure my wallet was not compromised. The other two wallets signed to remove the NFTs against the DAO's legal structure.” He claimed Augustine removed legal documents and server logs from the BRAQ Discord.

Augustine later acknowledged the NFTs' absence. In December, he informed the Braq community via Discord that he identified those responsible and that developers had access to his personal accounts, claiming he lost everything. He promised to recover the assets or replace them.

Promising to Make Things Right

Updates from Augustine were scarce after his initial acknowledgment. In January 2024, he assured the community that he intended to replace the lost assets and rectify the situation. By June, he repeated this commitment but the Braq community remained doubtful, requesting evidence for his claims.

Community member “meru” expressed concerns based on records and Augustine’s actions, including deleted documents.

In May, Augustine moved to crypto prime broker LTP as a relationship manager, later joining OpenEden. In September, he participated in a panel about tokenization before resigning the following month.

OpenEden's Removal of Eugene Ng

In October, OpenEden dismissed co-founder Eugene Ng following serious accusations made against him on social media. After this incident, Ng deleted his social media profiles.

Ng was a founding partner of DWF Labs, which fired him after the allegations surfaced and withdrew $10 million in USDT from OpenEden. DWF Labs has a contentious history and is connected to an options trading firm that invests in OpenEden through Darley Labs.

We reached out to OpenEden for comments, requesting they forward our inquiries to Augustine, but were unable to contact him directly as his email bounced, and his LinkedIn account had been deleted or set to private.