Manny's Time in His Race to the Skolkovo Flip
Manny's Run: The Sprint to the Skolkovo Flip
Note: This essay draws on my notes from my research for "The Telegram Labyrinth." However, I feel comfortable with a style that blends my musings, facts, and some "what if" scenarios. In this essay, I present some information about the Skolkovo recipe, an approach to US capital markets that requires a specific page from a financial engineering playbook. Most of the information originated in Russian social media; for example, online articles, Telegram messages, items in PCNews.ru, and VKontakte pages. Remember, the statements in this essay are from my notes and should be viewed as working hypotheses. Verify before you trust any of my observations. Please, keep the disclaimers in mind as you review this briefing document.
Stotz began his job as the president of the TON Foundation in January 2025. In theory, he would put his Kingsway / Koenigsweg companies on ice and direct his attention to expanding the TONcoin ecosystem. This Foundation was set up by Pavel Durov after the US Securities & Exchange Commission fined the company for its crypto fund raising efforts between 2018 and the payment of a multi-million dollar fine in the summer of 2020. Durov's solution to his run in with the SEC was to cook up an independent foundation and "give" the Telegram crypto coin and its attendant blockchain technology, to that new organization. The Foundation was registered in Switzerland but had "operations" in Dubai, UAE.
In August 2024, Durov found himself in a jail cell in Paris. He had been arrested and charged with about a dozen serious online crimes. The French judiciary allowed him to remain in France. He had to check in with the J3 team, and if he wanted to leave France, Durov had to request permission. No trial date was scheduled at the end of the year. But the uncertainty about Durov's future roiled the TON Foundation. Telegram and the TON Foundation identified Manny Stotz as the person who could lead the TON Foundation as uncertainty flooded the Telegram ecosystem.
The former president of the TON Foundation yielded his position to Stotz. Steve Yun started a new company called TVM Ventures LLC in November 2024. This company is wholly owned by Global Alliance Ltd and was registered in the Cayman Islands by an entity named "Seo Ro Yun." Was this the given name of Steve Yun? The company's purpose was to fund startups creating software for the TON Open Network, internal jargon for Telegram's blockchain. TVM would fund a promising startup and profit from its success. Because the companies funded by TVM would develop for the Telegram platform, the "value" and "utility" of the TONcoin would go up.
Problems plagued the Foundation. In 2025, the market value of crypto appeared to brighten. Telegram / the TON Foundation looked to Stotz to capitalize on the hoped-for bright future for crypto despite the question marks about Durov's future. Stotz' résumé suggested he was the right financial engineer for the Foundation job:
- He had a reputation as a strong supporter of frontier investments in Southeast Asia
- His degree from the London School of Economics helped him get a fund management job at GoldmanSachs. After a few years at Goldman, Stotz joined Taube Hodson Stonex Partners (THS) 2011. He handled investments in frontier opportunties. What's interesting is that Stotz had organized a company himself and named it "Kingsway." At THS, that firm created a frontier fund called the THS Kingsway Fund. Stotz was the fund manager for THS. In 2015, Stotz left THS and focused on his own company called Kingsway Capital Management Limited. The situation was either amicable or of no material interest to THS. There was no legal dispute over Stotz' "brand surfing."
- Stotz thrived on risk. If the Telegram / TON Foundation operation could make TONcoin the primary currency for global monetary transactions, Stotz signaled at crypto conferences and prestigious events like the NOAH events, he had the horsepower to compete and win.
- Stotz recognized the importance of penetrating the US capital market. He positioned himself as the person who could deliver a business based on TONcoin to tap the money flowing through the NASDAQ exchange.
- Stotz had knowledge of key financial movers and shakers in Dubai; for example, Oskar Hartmann, also a German national and founder of the Russian expatriate Equium Club with operations in Dubai and a handful of other cities.
Stotz stepped into Steve Yun's shoes. Almost immediately he began formulating a bolder plan than the private fund Yun managed. Manny would take Telegram to the US capital market, specifically, NASDAQ. That move would increase the visibility of TONcoin and increase the perceived value of the Telegram-created crypto currency.
Manny's education, work experience, and connections to influential people allowed Stotz to conceive a reverse merger based on Michael Saylor's Bitcoin financial model. Saylor, the founder of a business analytics company, purchased Bitcoin and generated millions in profit as the value of the Bitcoin assets rose. Stotz calculated that he could engineer a version of Saylor's business model and profit from the success of TONcoin by taking a TONcoin-centric asset company public.
In August 2025, one year after Durov's arrest, Stotz left his position as president of the TON Foundation and became the executive chairman of the TON Strategy Company. He embraced this new opportunity. While at the TON Foundation, Stotz worked hard to [a] develop a financial engineering game plan to get a TONcoin asset company listed on NASDAQ; [b] organize the financing, [c] identify and hire a NASDAQ insider to help identify and flip a moribund publicly-trade company, and [d] drive the enterprise to financial success. Stotz used his Kingsway company as an intermediary for the flip, and Stotz reserved for himself roles in Kingsway and the new publicly-traded company. Ordinarily the process of getting a company listed on NASDAQ can take a year or more. Stotz accomplished this in less than six months.
Skolkovo in Moscow, as well as other financial engineer training grounds, teaches a legal, almost-foolproof work-around to get a company listed on NASDAQ. A company already listed on NASDAQ can fall into financial difficulty. The share value of this firm craters. It is not completely defunct, but it is headed toward delisting. A financial engineer steps in, negotiates to purchase the dying swan, and performs a reverse merger. The idea is that the acquired firm's NASDAQ listing can be used to trade on NASDAQ. The reverse merger is legal and requires that the buyer of the distressed firm files the paperwork required by the SEC and adheres to SEC procedures.
Stotz lines up his ducks and acquires the struggling firm doing business as VERB, a company with an online shopping platform. Stotz announces a private placement and, voilà, TON Strategy Company is a NASDAQ-listed firm trading under the NASDAQ symbol TONX. The process closed on August 7, 2025. Stotz' firm Kingsway provided the funding and Stotz took over the new venture as executive chairperson. Kingway-affiliated funds acquired about 12 million shares of TONX and a pre-funded warrant. The warrant's value was about $118 million, giving Stotz-linked entities about 20 percent beneficial ownership of the entity. Stotz had control of TON Strategy.
On August 20, 2025, Stotz gives up his role at the TON Foundation to run TON Strategy Company. About two weeks later on September 3, 2025, TON Strategy adopts a $250 million stock repurchase program. The company disclosed the plan and added a price-support and capital-allocation mechanism.
On September 29, 2025, Stotz reported an indirect purchase of 70,000 TONX shares. A Form 4 filing revealed that the purchase was via a Kingsway-linked company. Stotz had signaled his commitment to the asset-play anchored exclusively to TONcoin. An SEC filing also disclosed that VERB entered an advisory-services agreement with Kingsway on August 7, 2025, with a $3 million setup fee, a 2.0 percent annual fee tied to market capitalization, and a 20-year term.
Everything worked. But the value of TONcoin shows signs of weakness. Stotz had pitched the idea that the TONcoin-centric asset play would fuel the TON Strategy Company's growth. Stotz stayed the course, and he did not falter in his commitment to his vision, pivot to add revenue streams, or change the game plan he had worked out earlier in 2025.
And, another "but" is warranted. In October 2025, Stotz and the TON Strategy Company received an SEC reprimand. The firm failed to hold a required shareholder vote for the PIPE or "private investment in a public equity." NASDAQ Rules 5635(a) and 5635(b) require a vote because a stock issuance represented a change of control and exceeded 20 percent of the pre-transaction outstanding shares. On October 8, 2025, Stotz had to disclose this reprimand. Then in January 2026, Stotz received letters of reprimand from the SEC and from NASDAQ about the shareholder approval violations. Also in early 2026, the SEC sent Stotz memoranda about procedural errors. TON Strategy had to update its filings to address material weakneesses in internal controls and errors in digital asset valuation.
In March 2026, TON Strategy reported its year-end results. The company said it had $356 million in digital assets. The company's business model would remain unchanged. Despite the continued erosion of TONcoin value, Stotz did not signal a change to the original strategy of generating revenue by buying TONcoin with the expectation that the value of these assets would increase as demand for TONcoin grew.
To recap:
- Manny left Kingsway, became president of the TON Foundation, formulated a game plan to take Telegram to America, identified a candidate for a reverse merger, raised money to make the deal, and rolled out a publicly-traded company hooked to TONcoin at the hip. Stotz demonstrated that he was a multi-tasker par excellence.
- The source of the funding for the reverse merger and the share buy back remains unclear. Rumors surface in social media that Stotz is a conduit for funds from unnamed international investors.
- Stotz demonstrates focus. He uses the Kingsway or Koenigsweg "names" for his financial ventures. Once he formulates a business model, he sticks to it. Stotz ignored a business model pivot. He did not take steps to diversify TON Strategy Company's revenue. He made no acquisitions.
- Stotz appointed a new chief financial officer and a new legal professional. He terminated the first president of TON Strategy but has not yet named a replacement. TON Strategy operates with a lean staff from a private residence in Las Vegas. The original VERB team has departed. The make up of the company's board of directors has changed.
In April 2026…
TON Strategy Co. has not been sitting on its hands. Stotz presents the company as holding steady on its Toncoin treasury strategy. However, the firm’s 2025 results show a more complicated revenue structure. Total revenue of 4.0 million from staking. MARKET.live and Go Fund Yourself appear to remain meaningful revenue contributors. This suggests that behind the treasury story, Stotz is still relying on inherited VERB operations to generate cash and help support the company’s public-market footing.
Stotz' next moves are worth watching.
Stephen E Arnold, April 27, 2026 329 pm US Eastern
