Final 12 months, Maya Parbhoe rapidly turned well-known within the worldwide Bitcoin neighborhood as she offered herself to the world as a presidential candidate in her nation, 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 rapidly gained traction as she made her case for a way she might assist Suriname as president each on-line and in particular person at conferences reminiscent of Bitcoin Amsterdam.
Distinguished members of the Bitcoin neighborhood reminiscent of Bitcoin mining analyst and management coach Daniel Batten have vouched for Parbhoe in current months, whereas Jan3 CEO Samson Mow was the one who inspired Parbhoe to run for president. I, too, helped deliver consideration to her candidacy.
Nonetheless, in current weeks, some cracks have began to kind in Parbhoe’s story. Studies 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 partly an phantasm.
The studies declare that Parbhoe has overstated her odds of turning into president of Suriname to the worldwide neighborhood and that her political messaging throughout the nation has had little to nothing to do with Bitcoin.
What’s extra, some studies that are actually 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 instructed Bitcoin Journal that she has disdain for the nation’s poor.
On high of that, reported intel from the U.S. authorities estimates that Parbhoe could also be working as “managed opposition,” a political determine who serves as a placeholder for those who they purport to be in opposition to. Based on 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 firms are getting used to launder cash.
Earlier than diving deeper into the latter allegations, it’s first necessary 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
Based on a 2022 report from the U.S. Division of State, nearly each sector of Suriname’s authorities has been accused of corruption. These sectors embody the central financial institution of Suriname and state-owned firms, together with the nation’s nationwide airline, Surinam Airways, and the federal government medical insurance firm, SZF.
A number of the highest-ranking people within the nation have additionally been concerned in corruption, because the nation’s present vp has been convicted of drug trafficking and the nation’s former president, Dési Bouterse, was convicted of drug trafficking and homicide 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 Might 25, 2025.
As a part of her messaging, she usually mentions how her father was murdered for talking out in opposition to corruption within the nation, and he or she 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 not noted 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. Based on 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 instructed him as a lot.
Micah Dunford, a retired Inexperienced Beret and CEO of Greyscale Safety, an organization that Parbhoe contracted to guard her through 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.]
After I initially interviewed Parbhoe in July 2024, she provided 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 just lately reached out to her to ask her in regards to the matter.
“My father was in enterprise with Dorsett Resorts,” Parbhoe instructed Bitcoin Journal through e-mail.
“It was a publicly traded firm within the U.S. and he purchased $500,000 in shares so he could possibly be in investor conferences. My father went to the then Minister of Justice, Santhokhi, and all authorities, together with the three letter businesses, when he realized what was occurring,” she added.
“His case in opposition to de [De] Surinaamsche Financial institution is at present being delayed by the president at our highest courtroom of justice. The case in opposition to the CEO, COO and Supervisor from Dorsett goes to courtroom on April twenty eighth. I’m his solely dwelling inheritor preventing 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 development with regards to a few of the tales she tells — together with the one about her turning into president of Suriname.
Suriname’s Electoral System
In Suriname’s political system, a parliamentary democracy, voters elect candidates to signify 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 multiple seat, the extra seats went to members of their similar occasion in predetermined order based mostly on their place on the occasion’s candidate listing — the upper on the listing, the higher the percentages of successful a parliamentary seat.
Though it was technically doable for a candidate decrease on the listing to be elected into parliament immediately if sufficient folks vote on this candidate particularly (relatively than the occasion chief), this not often occurred.
As soon as parliamentarians had been elected, coalitions would kind 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 particular 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 line with the aforementioned 2022 report from the U.S. Division of State.
The doc states that “the courtroom discovered that votes in rural, much less populated districts outweighed these in city, extra populated areas, because it required far fewer votes to win a seat for the Nationwide Meeting in rural districts [and it] mandated that the federal government and Nationwide Meeting amend the laws as quickly as doable for the 2025 elections to happen on time.”
Underneath 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 based mostly on the overall variety of votes on all candidates for these events. These seats then go to the candidates of every of those events that received essentially 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 essentially the most particular person votes; their rating on the occasion’s candidate listing is irrelevant.
Any group of no less than seven members of parliament (no matter occasion affiliation) can submit a candidate for president. Parliament then votes based mostly on that listing of candidates, and a two-thirds majority vote determines who wins the presidency.
Parbhoe’s Technique To Turn out to be President
Parbhoe, who will not be the pinnacle of the political occasion with which she’s affiliated, the Nationwide Get together of Suriname (NPS), is seeking to capitalize on this new system by aiming to get as many votes as doable within the basic election.
She stated that she would wish 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 folks voted in Suriname’s 2020 election, and if every of the 51 candidates elected to parliament acquired 5,380 votes, this may 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 minimal of seven,000 votes as a candidate based mostly in Paramaribo, the biggest constituency within the nation.)
A ballot carried out on April 21, 2025 exhibits that NPS could win 10 seats in parliament (7 greater than they at present 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 successful a seat in parliament is what she calls a “worst case state of affairs.”
It’s because her aim isn’t to turn out to be a member of parliament — it’s to turn out to be president.
“I’m not working for a seat within the Nationwide Meeting,” she wrote in an e-mail to me.
Parbhoe is aiming for a best-case state of affairs wherein she will get essentially the most votes within the nation, as “often, the candidate with essentially the most votes will get elected by members of parliament to turn out to be president,” in line with her. (What she didn’t point out, although, is that the candidate who nearly all the time will get essentially the most votes is the chief of the most important political occasion.)
She acknowledged that the chief of NPS, Gregory Rusland, is considered one of her greatest opponents. A report exhibits that in a current 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 “a lot of the candidates which have introduced that they’re working 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 publish on April 13, Michel Greijmans, a businessman based mostly in Curaçao who visited Suriname for work in February, commented that Parbhoe has much less of an opportunity of successful the presidency as a result of she is ranked quantity 21 throughout the NPS.
What Greijmans didn’t acknowledge, although — in all probability as a result of he was not aware of this data — 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 throughout the occasion was first introduced, and he or she reiterated this to me in our most up-to-date communications.
Had she not chosen quantity 21, she stated she would have opted for a rating on the backside of the listing of her occasion (quantity 50 or 51). In Surinamese parliamentary system — no 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 listing simply to endorse a specific occasion. (This kind of candidate is typically known as a Lijstduwer, which interprets to “listing pusher,” and it exists within the Surinamese and Dutch parliamentary methods. Checklist pushers usually embody celebrities, artists, or athletes who don’t have any intention of serving in parliament.)
So, except for Parbhoe’s being a brand new, younger candidate, what else is she doing to distinguish herself from the competitors?
Nicely, she’s broadcasted to the worldwide Bitcoin neighborhood that she plans to exchange Suriname’s nationwide foreign money, which has a mean yearly inflation charge of 8.7% and which spiked as excessive as 59% in 2020, with bitcoin.
Nonetheless, those that’ve visited Parbhoe in Suriname and who’ve reported again to the worldwide Bitcoin neighborhood have stated that Bitcoin is hardly a part of her messaging throughout the nation and that her technique to exchange the nationwide foreign money with bitcoin received’t work.
The Actuality On The Floor: Parbhoe’s Lack Of A Bitcoin Technique
Greijmans, in his aforementioned Reddit publish, 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 discuss her.
Dr. Jack Kruse, who’d met with Parbhoe on the bottom in Suriname in February and even gave a nationally-televised speak 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 study extra about his expertise on the bottom.
Greijmans’ Take
“The truth that the folks I spoke to didn’t need to discuss her raised considerations for me,” Greijmans instructed Bitcoin Journal.
Greijmans didn’t communicate up about his expertise instantly after his go to, although, as a result of he felt it was doable that members of the native Bitcoin neighborhood had been merely attempting to distance the neighborhood that they had been constructing from her marketing campaign.
He additionally famous that members of the Bitcoin neighborhood on the bottom in Suriname are doing “great work” and that he doesn’t need the harm that Parbhoe is likely to be doing to blow again on the neighborhood there. (Kemal Yaşar, Advertising Director for Blink Pockets, 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 neighborhood that Greijmans visited, Bitcoin Sranan, in 2021.
Greijmans additionally famous that as of the second week of April, Parbhoe had revamped her web site, eradicating all claims that she is working for president.
His predominant 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 stated that considered one of his motivations in writing the Reddit piece was to let the worldwide neighborhood know that Parbhoe gave the impression to be benefiting from the truth that it was straightforward for her to venture a sure picture to a global viewers, as her actions are tough to audit for individuals who aren’t on the bottom in Suriname.
“I wished to no less than alert folks like, ‘Hey, hear, you’re coping with a tradition, a political system, a rustic that’s very opaque to its worldwide viewers,’” stated Greijmans.
Parbhoe’s Chief Financial Advisor’s Take
Rahim Taghizadegan, Parbhoe’s chief financial advisor, claimed in a current X publish 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 didn’t shock me within the slightest that the on-the-ground actuality — relating to each Bitcoin adoption and Maya’s precise position — fell considerably wanting the media hype,” wrote Taghizadegan.
Taghizadegan additionally talked about that he’d communicated to Parbhoe that her plan to make bitcoin the first foreign money in Suriname wasn’t sensible, an evaluation she wasn’t keen on.
“Maya disliked my evaluation that her proposal to transform the nationwide foreign money immediately into [b]itcoin by governmental decree was unfeasible,” he wrote.
Moreover, Taghizadegan additionally famous Parbhoe’s shortcomings as a businesswoman.
“Her enterprise observe report revealed deficiencies in judgment and execution, however this was hardly sudden and fairly typical for somebody 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 commenced 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 considerations about Parbhoe based mostly on her lack of means to execute in addition to her poor enterprise acumen.
Whereas he was with Parbhoe on the bottom, Parbhoe tearfully instructed 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 damage her fame.
One other supply accustomed to 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 stated that the marketing campaign was being run from her lounge sofa with a number of unpaid crew members and that there was “no dialogue about bitcoin.”
“Parbhoe didn’t have a Bitcoin platform inside Suriname,” stated Shamay.
Due to what he noticed in his visits with Parbhoe, he withheld a mid-six-figure donation that he deliberate to offer to her marketing campaign.
A Greyscale Safety Workforce Members’ Take
One of many members from Greyscale’s safety crew 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 folks based mostly on how they costume and the way they current themselves,” the safety crew member instructed Bitcoin Journal.
“If they’re poor, you possibly can inform that she doesn’t give a flying shit about them. We’d stroll by the streets, and if someone walked previous her or walked too near her, she would act like they had been soiled — she didn’t like most of these folks being round her,” he added.
(Taghizadegan additionally commented on Parbhoe’s habits towards others in his X publish. He wrote that “She was unkind to many individuals.”)
Parbhoe additionally demeaned and belittled each this safety crew member and his companion on the bottom, he stated.
Based on the safety crew member, she requested him how a lot cash he made, and when he instructed her, she responded by saying, “I didn’t know you’re one of many poors.”
The safety crew 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 nearly each supply for this piece stated that Parbhoe both owes them cash, owes somebody that they know cash, or owes somebody with whom she works cash.
Based on the safety crew 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 explanation she doesn’t have the funds she must run her marketing campaign correctly or to assist these she claims to assist.
“[My] possibilities [of winning] lower if I pay firms like Greyscale 3x for [a] contract they usually deplete us out of funds,” wrote Parbhoe, alluding to the notion that Greyscale had overcharged her.
“I’ve initiatives for the lecturers (portray colleges, supplies for the youngsters), orphanages (we nonetheless ship meals every day and have additionally deliberate sports activities/play days for them) and nurses (they’ve deliberate supply of 70 baggage with merchandise new mothers want) with deadlines and now much less assets to finish,” she added.
“If I would like to select between airtime, billboards, and precise initiatives that assist folks, I’ll all the time choose the latter.”
(Shamay instructed me that she just lately bought a billboard for her marketing campaign for $11,000, plus spent $7,000 on different advertising bills.)
Parbhoe additionally suffers from insomnia, in line with the safety crew member, and each hour and a half through the evening, Parbhoe would come out of her room and switch the lights on within the room wherein the safety crew members had been sleeping on couches.
“She would flip the lights on and say ‘If I’m awake, you’re awake,’” stated the safety crew member.
What’s extra, early one morning, she made the safety crew member with whom I spoke transfer to the ground to sleep.
“She got here out to the sofa and stated, ‘You’re in my spot — get out. You may sleep on the ground,’” stated the safety crew member. “For the remainder of the time that we stayed at that home, I simply slept on the ground within the kitchen, and it was horrible.”
Moreover, this safety crew additionally stated that Parbhoe turned paranoid that her stepfather was attempting 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 attempting to start out a fireplace 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 ‘Assist’ Messages On X
On April 2, Parbhoe posted each a “Assist” message on X and likewise recorded a 6-minute House entitled “Life and household below risk. SOS,” which didn’t function any proof of a risk. Each the tweet and the House had been solely just lately deleted.
Many within the Bitcoin neighborhood who’re on X turned involved, as there have been no studies of her standing for the hours that adopted.
Hours after the unique messages, she posted one other message on X wherein she said “The US Secret Service is right here in Suriname to guard me and to assist me uncover corruption.” (This message has since been deleted.)
Days later, Parbhoe said in an X publish that it was as a result of she was “below heavy remedy 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 revealed the X publish.
Moreover, two sources confirmed that Parbhoe was below no fast risk when she made the preliminary two posts.
Hiring Greyscale
Within the days main as much as Parbhoe’s coming into the hospital in preparation to offer 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 workers 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 partly as a result of she was being “managed by the opposition.”
“She is below their thumb,” stated Dunford. “They most probably wished to chop ties as a result of she wasn’t endorsed to run a marketing campaign and/or went off the reservation both politically or businesswise with whomever she is in mattress with — which is likely a combo of presidency [officials] and narcos, that are synonymous in Suriname.” (Extra on this within the following part.)
Round this time, Parbhoe despatched repeated erratic messages to the cofounder of Bitcasa Properties, 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 firms (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 possible 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 means 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 rapidly discover safety for Parbhoe.
That contact related her with Dunford at Greyscale.
Dunford was accustomed to Parbhoe’s purported mission to deliver Bitcoin to the folks of Suriname and agreed to supply his firm’s providers to Parbhoe whereas waiving his private payment.
Within the following days, Dunford despatched two of his crew 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 snug 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 through the latter a part of 2024 and urged others to observe his lead by donating, although, he now regrets doing so.
He stated that he very a lot believed in Parbhoe — somebody he’d met by the digital Bitcoin neighborhood Eenentwintig. He added that she had credibility as a result of she’d “put time into the Bitcoin neighborhood.”
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 “managed opposition” and doubtlessly being concerned with cash laundering.
Managed Opposition
Dunford shared that he was bowled over when he acquired this data on Parbhoe, because it shattered his phantasm of her.
He wished to consider she was the following 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 folks,” Dunford instructed Bitcoin Journal. “She’s managed opposition — it’s not an actual candidacy.”
As talked about, managed opposition refers to a scenario the place voters really feel they’ve an possibility in an election, however the possibility 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 within the nation have coerced her by monetary manipulation they usually personal her,” stated Dunford.
“This fashion, they may be certain that even when she received into some kind of energy, that they’d by no means be extradited to the EU,” he added. (After I first spoke with Parbhoe in July 2024, she stated that the leaders of her nation concern extradition, as a result of, if extradited, they’d be tried for the worldwide crimes they’ve allegedly dedicated.)
“She places on a coverage platform that will make the folks suppose, ‘Yeah, we’re going to combat the powers — we’re going to implement Bitcoin, blah, blah, blah, and that simply isn’t true as a result of they’re 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 crew members left Suriname, “unknown entities, maybe members of nationwide safety providers,” tried a compelled entry into the lodge room wherein the 2 Greyscale crew members had been staying to “change a lightbulb,” because the unknown individuals put it, in line with Dunford.
“Talking as a man that does this, when you have unhealthy placement on a microphone or a digital camera, you’re not going to know that till you get again and also you begin to assess the audio and video — you would possibly understand you possibly can’t hear the dialog or that there’s one thing blocking the digital camera,” defined Dunford.
“So, they despatched 5 actually burly dudes to get into the lodge room to repair the batteries and the sunshine or no matter it was, however we assessed that they had been making a battery, digital camera, or microphone adjustment to appropriate their preliminary placement.”
I used to be in contact with these two Greyscale crew members through textual content as this example within the lodge performed out, they usually appeared genuinely involved about their security.
With that stated, I used to be not capable of finding additional data to corroborate that Parbhoe is “managed opposition,” as Dunford put it.
Is Parbhoe Concerned With Cash Laundering?
Based on Dunford, intel derived from a man-made intelligence system constructed by the U.S. authorities states that there’s a extremely credible likelihood that the financial institution accounts for Quickship Logistics and Icarus Geosystems are getting used to launder funds.
A supply aware of financial institution information at Quickship Logistics stated he didn’t get the sense that this kind of exercise was taking place by the corporate’s financial institution accounts, although.
If considered one of Parbhoe’s accounts had been getting used for such exercise, it could extra possible be the account for Icarus Geosystems, an organization that builds infrastructure reminiscent of roads in distant areas of the nation.
Parbhoe is the monetary director of this firm, and six-figure sums of cash often circulate by a checking account for the corporate, as per financial institution information obtained by Bitcoin Journal.
I requested Parbhoe through e-mail what a few of the six-figure deposits had been for through e-mail and he or she responded with the next:
“Although Icarus is a personal firm, I can share that that’s income from initiatives at present in progress at Newmont and housing growth and a retaining wall/channel venture in Guyana.”
(Newmont is brief for Newmont Company. 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 actually make a six-figure deposit on February 14, 2025.
In my analysis, I couldn’t discover something to verify or corroborate the notion that funds are being laundered by Parbhoe’s firms’ financial institution accounts, nor that she is concerned with cash laundering in every other means.
Delusional, However Not A Felony Mastermind
A variety of sources described Parbhoe as “delusional,” “narcissistic,” and “mentally unstable,” however nearly all of them had been reluctant to name her a felony.
“She’s extra delusional than fraudulent,” is how one supply put it. “She’s additionally excellent at spinning the reality.”
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?
Based on 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 current studies of Parbhoe’s lack of forthrightness, Geyser Fund has taken down Parbhoe’s “Maya for President” donations web page.
For a while, Parbhoe revealed a marketing campaign funds tracker, and he or she appeared to take delight in being clear about the place the funds had been going.
She’s just lately taken down the marketing campaign funds tracker, although.
After I requested Parbhoe for an outline of bills, she supplied me with a hyperlink to this doc (screenshot beneath), which solely has eight line objects.
Taghizadegan talked about in his X publish 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 digital camera.
Parbhoe supplied extra data on this in my e-mail communication together with her.
“Arthur Laffer was engaged by a 3rd occasion and paid by him, John, who himself negotiated phrases with Dr. Laffer,” wrote Parbhoe. “He’s engaged to be financial advisor as soon as [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 serious donor to the marketing campaign.)
Whereas in Suriname, Parbhoe carried out an on-camera interview with Laffer, which was revealed 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 studies of him talking about Bitcoin adoption with these with whom he engaged whereas on the bottom in Suriname, although he spoke with NPS about cash and authorities financing.
“He gave a presentation for the NPS, which had an awesome influence on how the occasion views taxes and financial incentives,” wrote Parbhoe.
Parbhoe additionally paid Daniel Batten $2,500 in complete, although half of that funding got here from Daedalus Labs, in line with her.
Parbhoe wrote that Batten’s providers had been useful partly 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 wherein 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, stated that she’d agreed to pay her marketing campaign supervisor $17,000 monthly, however her most up-to-date marketing campaign supervisor left the marketing campaign after solely being paid $8,500 after two months.
Parbhoe’s aforementioned billboard and advertising bills price the marketing campaign $17,000, and he or she 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 previous couple of weeks, I’ve undergone extra trauma than I’ve endured my total life,” wrote Parbhoe.
“The considered dropping my daughter, when you had given me 21 million Bitcoin, I might have spent all of it to avoid wasting her life. No election is value her life,” she added.
“At this level, 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 finest, I’ll combat for [my daughter’s] future and proceed past Might twenty fifth,” wrote Parbhoe.
She concluded her last e-mail to me with a quote from Bitcoin’s creator, Satoshi Nakamoto:
“In the event you don’t consider me or don’t get it, I don’t have time to attempt to persuade 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 simply’re the fitting particular person for the job. And, proper now, many, together with quite a lot of former members of her crew, 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 tough factor to win again — particularly with regards to the Bitcoin neighborhood — and her lack of forthrightness has achieved appreciable harm 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 house.
- Bitcoiners from all over the world come to my help with donations and different kinds of marketing campaign help.
- Forge a slender path to victory to highest political place in Suriname, regardless of very low odds of such an end result.
A few of this performed out. The issue was that many who supported her finally rescinded their efforts once they noticed up shut what was taking place with Parbhoe.
However essentially the most maddening a part of this entire state of affairs is that if Dunford is correct in that Parbhoe is “managed 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 house, particularly political figures, are all the things they purport to be.
