Ask HN: Is YC funding sanctions evasion? The case of Kontigo Inc in Venezuela
by firekvz | 2026-01-02 00:08:31+00:00
I am writing this to raise a serious question about due diligence in the current VC landscape (YCombinator, DST Global, Soma Capital) regarding a startup called Kontigo. [1]

On the surface, Kontigo presents itself as a neobank for "Global Citizens" registered in Delaware (Kontigo Inc). However, a look at their operations suggests a structure designed to bypass OFAC sanctions while collaborating with the current Venezuelan regime.

If you look at Kontigo’s Terms and Conditions[2], they contain standard "Liability Shield" clauses explicitly prohibiting users from sanctioned countries (including Venezuela) from using the service, if you actually look at their footer, there is a list of countries, venezuela is nowhere to be seen there.

However, their entire public presence contradicts this. Their Instagram [3] is exclusively targeted at Venezuelans, is full of venezuelans influencers, talking about how to use kontigo in venezuela, all the posts i.e this one [4] are about their "venezuelan launch", Their allegaly 1 million user base is mostly Venezuelan. They are aggressively growing in a market their own legal documents claim to ban and all their numbers comes from this country.

There is a "Mirror" Structure and a Irregular License, Kontigo Inc (Delaware) operates in Venezuela through a local entity called Oha Technology C.A. There is a document[5] showing that Oha Technology was granted a crypto exchange license (No: LFCI-SUNA-001-2025) on Jan 9, 2025. however, this license was issued by Sunacrip (the National Superintendency of Cryptoassets). Sunacrip has been officially "intervened" and under a restructuring board since 2023 due to a multi-billion dollar corruption scandal ("PDVSA-Cripto") [6][7][8] and noone has access to this Superintendency.

So now, we got this question: How does a US-backed startup obtain license #001 in 2025 from a frozen, government-controlled regulator that isn't issuing licenses to anyone else? This implies a direct arrangement with the venezuelan corrupt regime, I would like to read some explanations from YC here.

Also, according to a recent report by Transparencia Venezuela (an NGO), this structure allows for dangerous arbitrage. The platform allows users to deposit cash (USD) at local Venezuelan banks, which is then converted to USDC in the app. This creates a massive blind spot for AML (Anti-Money Laundering) checks, potentially allowing illicit capital from a sanctioned government to be "washed" into clean USDC, backed by US investors.

The Questions for the Community:

Are VCs like YC, DST Global, Coinbase VC, etc, actually auditing the source of revenue for their fintech portfolio companies?

Is "Growth at all costs" allowing startups to operate in gray zones that actively facilitate sanctions evasion?

Why is a company that explicitly bans Venezuelans in its English legal docs allowed to operate exclusively in Venezuela in practice?

I believe this deserves scrutiny. Kontigo looks like building a bridge for a dictatorship to access the US financial system, please help me understand this, if someone from YC can answer this officially, or make some statement, would be good, because the damage done to our country by situations like this is huge, they are giving "air" to a corrupt dictatorship

[1] https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/kontigo

[2] https://www.kontigo.com/es/termsAndConditions

[3] https://www.instagram.com/kontigo.app/

[4] https://www.instagram.com/p/DSQaWPZEZcV/

[5] https://imgur.com/a/yWxqt5F

[6] https://transparenciave.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/PDVSA-CRYPTO-An-precedented-Fraud-with-Tremendous-Economic-and-Social-Impact-_OCT2023.pdf

[7] https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caso_PDVSA-Cripto

[8] https://www.forbes.com/sites/digital-assets/2023/04/20/bitcoin-miners-trapped-in-alleged-20-billion-corruption-scheme-in-venezuela/

[9] https://transparenciave.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Nuevas-formas-de-corrupcion-y-lavado-de-dinero.pdf