The controversial miniseries Fire: early retirement is no longer available on VRT Max. The public broadcaster has taken the series offline now that one of the participants is involved in a Russian pyramid scheme.
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In the four-part series Fire: early retirement young people who want to become financially independent in a short time, and who want to retire so young (Fire stands for ‘financial independence, retire early’). Some of them hope to achieve this with cryptocurrencies, prompting the stock market watchdog FSMA to label the series as “unrealistic” and even “dangerous”.
Two weeks after launch, the series can no longer be seen on the VRT Max digital platform, the public broadcaster reported on Tuesday. That decision was made after their own investigation revealed that one of the participants was involved in a Russian pyramid scheme and was using social media to get closer to others.
There was already a hype about that attendee because the luxurious life he was showing online was easy to pierce. For example, he had photographed himself in exotic places. In the series, he boasts of making at least 1.4% daily profit from shady investments, which experts have already questioned in recent weeks. It now appears that the young man earns his money through The Future Trade platform, known as the Russian pyramid scheme.
‘Encountered Fire we tried to portray a current, albeit controversial, phenomenon with real people and stories. It was clear to any careful viewer that not all stories in the series are equally suitable as an example to follow. Fire it was never intended as an educational program, ‘according to the VRT announcement.
And further: ‘But as the pressure continues to give the series a different vocation than expected and as this unfortunately also undermines VRT’s extensive and valuable educational offering, we have decided to remove the series from the offering. The discussion around Fire has meanwhile embarked on a path that the series did not want to respond to at all and which does its purpose unfair. ‘
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