The Wonderland project was rocked by the crypto investigator who goes by the name zachxbt.eth, who posted on Twitter his conversation with one of the founders of Wonderland, Daniele Sestagalli, in which he revealed that OxSifu, one of the managers of Wonderland, is in reality Michael Patryn, former co-founder of QuadrigaCX, a Canadian exchange that collapsed in 2019, and saw its founder disappear into thin air with 168 million dollars.
This smart boy discovered that Michael Patryn had a series of back scams: In 2015 he ran a marketplace that sold stolen credit cards, known as Omar Dhanani, served his 18-month sentence in American prisons, and moved to Canada where he founded the QuadrigaCX ponzi with another accomplice Gerald Cotten, who is said to have died mysteriously in India, but in reality no one can confirm this as he was cremated.
This left the whole community dismayed, attracting the attention of Bloomberg who wrote how one of the managers who held the Treasury of the Wonderland project was in the hands of a criminal (even if alone he could not have moved the funds because it is multi-signed).
Daniele Sesta confirmed his conversation with zachxbt.eth in which they talk about 0xSifu, but did not directly say that 0xSifu is Patryn, only that it is someone with a sinister past that he wanted to give a second chance.
“Today allegations about our team member @0xSifu will circulate. I want everyone to know that I was aware of this and decided that the past of an individual doesn’t determine their future. I choose to value the time we spent together without knowing his past more than anything”.
Daniele Sesta said on Twiter. looking for an excuse for his choices.
Certainly a character like 0xSifu did not have the qualities to manage such an important treasury, with funds from the whole Frog Nation. Andre Cronje, who is developing Wonderland with Daniele Sesta, also made a meme on Twitter to beat his partner on choosing travel companions, because knowing that 0xSifu manages user funds is extreme negligence.
There was a vote in the Frog Nation community to oust 0xSifu from his role, a motion that obviously prevailed. But after everything we have read and discovered zachxbt.eth on 0xSifu, there was 15% of the voters who miraculously still wanted him in his place, even knowing about the Quadriga Boys and the history of stolen credit cards etc.
OxSifu, a few days after being ousted as Wonderland’s CFO, sent 2,000 Eth through Tornado cash. News of Dhanani sending millions to Tornado was spread on Twitter shortly after the transactions were posted. Dhanani divided the 2,000 Eth into 100 Eth transactions and sent 20 separate transactions to Tornado Cash.
We learn from mistakes, and this was a big mistake, because putting a billion dollars in the hands of such a character cannot go unnoticed. We can’t be surprised if someone will move to CeFi after this and there will be so much fear and so much fud in the world of Defi. Certainly there is a lot of interest in DeFi but, like any new field, it is managed by people as brilliant as they are inexperienced, who have not developed the quality to know how to choose a team. Disputes that stain their good faith with the doubt of who entrusts their money to them.
