An Africa-centric integrated alternative payment and e-commerce company, Patricia Technologies Limited has said it would continue with its plans to start repaying its customers from 20th November despite the withdrawal of the appointed escrow manager, DLM Trust.
In a statement by its CEO/Founder, Hanu Fejiro, Patricia Technologies said that it was “shocked by DLM Trust Company’s sudden and unilateral decision to terminate our partnership”. It added that the withdrawal came after it had deposited some money into the company’s account for the repayment plans.
Expressing its disappointment with the withdrawal of DLM Trust as its partner, Patricia Technologies said in a statement at the weekend that the development came as a surprise “as we were not informed before their public statement of withdrawal. However, we wish to assure our depositors and stakeholders, that the Repayment plan we initiated along with DLM Trustees a few days ago, will go on as scheduled.
Earlier this year, the crypto trading company converted its customers’ crypto and cash assets to Patricia Token without their consent.
In a White Paper released to explain its actions, Patricia Technologies said it experienced a cyberattack, which led to the loss of assets.
It added that its commitment to integrity and customer trust spurred the creation of the Patricia Token as an internal token for the customers to hold on to.
According to the company, the Token symbolises a promise to pay holders 1 USDT for each Patricia Token in the future, thereby ensuring asset recovery and addressing the impact of the security breach.
It said the Patricia Token is not on-chain, but an internal token used to represent debt and it would be managed by the company.
As part of moves to settle its customers who have been demanding their money, Patricia recently offered them the option of converting the debt into equity shares in the company.
Some of the customers who spoke to Nairametrics said they had received the offer letter signed by Fejiro. But, they refused to sign it because it would mean signing their money away. They insisted on returning their crypto assets converted to Patricia Coin without their consent.
In a statement on Wednesday, DLM Trust said it had pulled out of the agreement to act as Patricia Technologies’ escrow trust in the repayment of N2 billion customer funds because of multiple breaches of the agreement and trust between the two parties.
This came a day after Patricia had announced the company as a partner.
In the statement signed by DLM Trust Senior Associate, Kehinde Lawal, the company said: “DLM Trust Company has announced that it will no longer be proceeding with Patricia Technologies as its escrow trust in repayment of N2 Billion withheld customer funds. This is because of multiple breaches in the terms and conditions of the agreement and trust between Patricia Technologies and DLM Trust Company.
“We are an SEC-licensed trust company that prides itself in the transparent and prudent management of funds, and following certain violations by the Patricia Technologies team will no longer act as its escrow trust”.
Patricia Technologies’ full statement
“We at Patricia Technologies are shocked by DLM Trust Company’s sudden and unilateral decision to terminate our partnership. This development is coming as a surprise as we were not informed before their public statement of withdrawal. However, we wish to assure our depositors and stakeholders that the repayment plan we initiated along with DLM Trustees a few days ago, will go on as scheduled.
“It must be noted that our appointment of DLM Trustees was a culmination of several weeks of engagement with the leadership of the Group, including Mr. Kehinde Lawal of DLM Group; and Mrs. Lola Rasaq, the CEO of DLM Trust Company, up to the point of signing the partnership. During the process and the immediate aftermath of the agreement, we at Patricia Technologies have conducted ourselves with the utmost professionalism, while observing all due processes including fulfilling our financial commitments to consummate the contractual agreement.
“Evidence of this is the transfer of substantial funds to DLM Trustees as part of the planned payouts to our customers, scheduled to start from 20th November 2023.
“It is therefore astounding to us that not only has DLM Trustees chosen to renege on our agreement, but that they failed to issue us a notice, or extend the basic courtesy of a prior discussion, in stark disregard for the clearly spelt termination clause in our contract.
“More bewildering is the claim in their public statement that we broke the terms and conditions of our partnership without spelling out how. We not only categorically reject this false claim, we challenge DLM Trustees to substantiate the allegations.
“We believe this accusation is baseless, and we might be taking legal action to seek restitution for setbacks and damages incurred as a result of this attempt at defamation, if DLM Trust fails to validate their claim.
“To our esteemed customers, We wish to assure you that notwithstanding this regrettable development, all scheduled payments will proceed, starting from the 20th as initially planned.
“This is another opportunity to show that not only are we resilient as an organisation, but our commitment to you also remains steadfast.
“We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience or concern this situation may have generated and thank you for your enduring trust and patronage.
“Again, our planned repayment to depositors will proceed”.
