Patricia Technologies has said it would continue with its plans to start repaying its customers from November 20 despite the withdrawal of the appointed escrow manager, DLM Trust.
In a statement signed by its CEO, Hanu Fejiro, the company said 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.
It came as a surprise
Expressing its disappointment with the withdrawal of DLM Trust as its partner, Patricia in the statement said:
- “This 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.
- “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 November 20, 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.”
There was no breach
Patricia also denied the claim by DLM Trust that it broke the terms and conditions of their partnership.
- “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,” the company stated.
Assurance to customers
Assuring its customers that the repayment plans will still go on, Patricia said:
- “We wish to assure you that notwithstanding this regrettable development, all scheduled payments will proceed, starting from the 20th as planned. This is another opportunity to show that not only are we resilient as an organization, but our commitment to you also remains steadfast.”
Patricia, however, did not state how this would happen since it would need a third party to disburse the fund.
DLM’s withdrawal
DLM Trust in a statement released on Wednesday said it has 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.”
Previous announcement
In a statement issued on Tuesday, Patricia Technologies announced its partnership with DLM Trust to oversee the management and disbursement of customer deposit repayments.
The partnership, it said was aimed at ensuring a seamless and secure process for the return of deposits to Patricia Technologies Limited’s valued customers.
Indeed, the company stated that “starting on November 20th, 2023, DLM Trust will begin the first batch of repayments to Patricia Technologies Limited’s customers.”
Curiously, while the statement portrayed DLM as the announcer of the partnership, the company said it had no knowledge of the statement until it was published in the media.
Backstory
The crypto trading company earlier this year converted its customers’ crypto and cash assets to Patricia Token without their consent.
Patricia in a White Paper released to explain its actions 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 symbolizes 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.
However, some of the customers who spoke to Nairametrics said they had received the offer letter signed by Patricia’s founder, Hanu Fejiro. Still, 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.