A prestigious private school that is £3million in debt has appointed two Bitcoin enthusiasts to its board.
Lomond School in Helensburgh brought in former footballer Stefan Ronz and programmer Daniel Werner as directors earlier this year.
It has yet to file its annual accounts for 2025, with the documents now more than six months overdue with the charity regulator OSCR.
Mr Ronz and Mr Werner replaced two long-serving directors who were removed in August after eight years leading the institution.
Parents were left stunned over the summer when the Dunbartonshire school announced a partnership with Scholarium, a Swiss organisation that advocates for ‘Bitcoin citadels’, run by cryptocurrency fanatic Rahim Taghizadegan.
Mr Ronz is a Bitcoin champion and one of the school's new directors
It was the fourth deal to be struck by school bosses, with previous arrangements collapsing. Mr Taghizadegan previously told The Mail on Sunday he had ‘rescued’ the school from closure by arranging a ‘substantial six-figure’ package.
But hours later he retracted the claim, saying Scholarium ‘organised the one-off funding needed to cover a temporary financial shortfall’.
The school’s website lists both Mr Werner and Mr Ronz as governors.
Mr Ronz, a former 1.FC Köln player, is a founding member of the German Bitcoin Association.
His LinkedIn profile features a picture of himself with red laser eyes, and an image from sci-fi film The Matrix.
Lomond school in Helensburgh has new governors after deal with Scholarium
It states he is a ‘self-employed partner’ in Austrian multi-level marketing company Ringana, which sells cosmetics and skincare in a similar way as Avon. Mr Werner has a masters degree in maths and worked as a software developer and for firms involved in machine learning and robotics.
According to Lomond School, he is also founder of a company based in Georgia called Fountainhead Walnuts LLC, which ‘combines modern agriculture with robotics and emerging technologies’.
Private schools across Scotland have struggled financially in recent years, with Fernhill School, near Glasgow, closing earlier this year after citing ‘rising costs and VAT on school fees’.
Lomond School is the only boarding school in the west of Scotland and charges up to £48,000 a year.
It became the first school in the UK to accept Bitcoin as a payment method last year.
The partnership with Scholarium and Mr Taghizadegan raised concern among parents previously when they discovered some of his views on alternative forms of education and his development of ‘Bitcoin citadels’.
He set up a network of villages to allow so-called ‘Bitcoiner families’ to avoid paying taxes by acting as travelling tourists, moving from place to place every three months.
He has appeared on dozens of podcasts and conferences linked to cryptocurrency and alternative lifestyles where he has discussed unschooling – the idea that children shouldn’t be taught in a conventional school setting or in a conventional way – and his deep scepticism of modern politics and European democracy.
Mr Taghizadegan is a supporter of ‘flag theory’ – a financial management technique used by the super-rich to legally avoid paying taxes by basing their businesses, banking and residential status in different countries.
Lomond School was contacted for comment.
