Manny and Oskar: Two Frontier Compeers
μ-Note: Manny and Oskar: Two Frontier Compeers
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.
Most people in my talks about Telegram do not recognize the names Manny Stotz and Oskar Hartmann. Both of these wealthy financial experts and entrepreneurs are German nationals. Both are well educated and at ease rubbing shoulders with heads of state in the United Arab Emirates and billionaires at an Equium Club cocktail party.
For more than a decade, these two Germans have scouted what appear to be "frontier opportunities." The Wild West to these two professionals are investment opportunities in start ups with online services or hookah manufacturers in the United Arab Emirates.
Hartman worked at Boston Consulting Group in Moscow. He had studied in the United States and graduated from Tuscarawas Valley High School in Ohio before getting his college degree from WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management in Germany. He then studied at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation (Finansovyy Universitet pri Pravitel'stve Rossiyskoy Federatsii). He earned an MBA from the University of Hawaii to round out his formal training before becoming a consultant.
Stotz went to school in Freiburg im Breisgau, a university city in the Black Forest region of West Germany. Stotz' family had academic prestige. His father authored one of the definitive chemistry books and worked as a Privatdozent. The family lived in modest circumstances because Herr Dr. Stotz did not have a position on the faculty at the University of Freiberg. Stotz received the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes or German National Merit Award. Each year 2,500 students achieve this distinction. Stotz leveraged the award to enter the London School of Economics. Because of his intellect and financial need, he received the Stellios scholarship. The award provides an LSE student with a seal of approval and access to the network of former Stellios recipients. After graduation, Stotz joined GoldmanSachs.
In 2015, Stotz served on the Board of Directors of the finance-focused NOAH conference. That year, Hartmann was one of the featured speakers. If the two did not meet prior to 2015, this NOAH event put the two men in the same event hall and in the same lecture session. After 2015, Stotz and Hartmann left few indications of their personal or business interactions.
However, in 2024, Stotz founded Koenigsweg Digital Assets Limited (DKAL), registered in the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM). Manuel Stotz serves as the Director and Chairman of this entity. Hartmann holds a seat as a Non-Executive Director of KDAL. This company appears to function as a touchpoint for Telegram and TON-related investments in the Middle East.
Within the UAE's ADGM framework, Hartmann's name appears as an ultimate beneficial owner or senior executive officer of joint-venture special purpose vehicles.
Joint-Venture Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs): Within the broader ADGM corporate architecture, Hartmann is frequently listed as an Ultimate Beneficial Owner (UBO) or "Senior Executive Officer" in joint-venture SPVs. One example is the membership organization Equium Club (www.equium.club). However, this club is structured as a series of professional services and holding SPVs. Through these specific vehicles, Hartmann’s own investment entities directly co-invest alongside Stotz's Kingsway Capital as Stotz did with Cars24 and an entity known as Numa Group.
One might examine the interactions of Stotz and Hartmann (what I call the Lederhosen bros) as an early investment for Hartmann. Then Stotz arrives with the GoldmanSachs' certification and the okay of the Abu Dhabi Global Market to a regulated fund or a NASDAQ-listed vehicle. The result is that a high-risk frontier company becomes one that is audited and verified.
Manny Stotz and uses Kingsway branding and financial engineering expertise to perform what might be called "institutional sanitization." The transfer points are bridges. With operations in different jurisdictions, seeing the big picture is difficult. Furthermore, the Lederhosen bros have developed a system and method that took years to master.
The involvement of Stotz in the Telegram-centric TON Strategy Company provides an example of how private investments in public equity operate. A reverse merger or what I call a "Skolkovo flip" took place in a matter of weeks. Money flowed into the TON Strategy Company. Aside from a procedural misstep, the US Securities & Exchange Commission has not taken action to probe TON Strategy Company. The UK regulators are not involved even though Stotz operates from central London. The UAE regulators are satisfied that Hartmann and Stotz operate in accordance with applicable rules and regulations. Consequently, Stotz and Hartmann have a functional assembly line to move funds without getting snagged in KYC or AML thorn bushes.
The Telegram-centric asset "play" has been dealt a karate chop from the sharp decline in the value of the TONcoin. The question is, "What will Stotz and his fellow German do to reverse the loss of value?" TONcoin has lost about half of its value in the last 12 months, falling from 1.37 in April 2026. Failure would be an embarrassment and mean personal loss of face and money for the lederhosen wearers.
Stephen E Arnold, April 16, 2026
