According to reports, Michael Patryn, a convicted criminal and co-founder of the now-defunct Canadian crypto QuadrigaCX, has been revealed as Wonderland's chief financial officer and goes by the Twitter moniker OxSifu. He will now resign from his role as the decentralised finance (Defi) protocol's treasury manager.
Anonymous on-chain detective Zach announced on Thursday that they have recognised OxSifu as Patryn in a chat with famous developer Daniele Sestagalli, with whom Patryn co-founded the Defi protocol Wonderland.
Sestagalli was rather vague about OxSifu's identification as Patryn in an earlier preemptive tweet, but she did confirm the chat with Zach. Later, he released a statement announcing that Patryn, or OxSifu, would resign while a vote was taken on whether to reinstate him as the treasury manager of Wonderland.
“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,” Sestagalli averred.
Sestagalli stated in the statement that he had been aware of the Patryn situation for almost a month but had hesitated from acting because he believed "in giving second chances." But after seeing angry reactions to his support of OxSifu on Twitter from people who had paid for his protocols, he changed his mind.
“I have decided that he [OxSifu] needs to step down till a vote for his confirmation is in place,” he said. “Wonderland has the say to who manages its treasury not me or the rest of the Wonderland team.”
The many faces of Michael Patryn
Together with the late Gerald Cotten, Michael Patryn co-founded the failed Canadian crypto QuadrigaCX in 2013, but he left the company three years later due to differences over the company's plans to go public. With investor funds totaling $169 million, the exchange collapsed in 2019.
In the US, Patryn was imprisoned for his involvement in an online identity theft ring. In March 2003, he changed his name from Omar Dhanani to Omar Patryn, and again in 2008, he changed it to Michael Patryn with the Canadian British Columbia government. In previous reports, he denied being Omar Dhanani.
Patryn was charged with a number of crimes in the United States, and in 2005, he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit credit and bank card fraud. He was just 22 years old at the time. He is being accused of operating the now-defunct website shadowcrew, which sold 1.5 million stolen credit and bank card numbers.
In 2007, Patryn admitted to a variety of unrelated crimes, including burglary, grand larceny, and computer fraud. He was deported to Canada after serving 18 months in prison for some of his criminal offenses, where he remade himself by getting involved with cryptocurrency.
“One of the reasons why blockchain technology and DeFi is so powerful is that has no bias about your past. I have no bias about @0xSifu he has become a friend and part of my family and if my reputation of judgment will be hit by his dox, then be it. All frogs for me are equal,” said Sestagalli.
