If you’ve been following the Wonderland drama over the last few days (read Part 1 and Part 2 for background), you may have expected that anything could happen. What you probably didn’t expect is what actually happened – Wonderland’s treasury manager Sifu was doxxed as convicted conman Omar Dhanani, aka Michael Patryn.
But that’s not all, folks! Dani knew. For at least a month, Daniele Sestagalli let a convicted fraudster, conman, and money launderer sit on the multisigs of 4 of his protocols.
Dani confirmed in a mirror post that Sifu has been removed from his position on Wonderland. However, Sifu still sits on Frog Nation multisigs, including Wonderland multisigs on ETH mainnet, Fantom, Avalanche. User funds may be in danger. Transactions currently sit in the multisig queue of the ETH mainnet multisig to send funds to Sifu’s personal wallet.
Sifu also appears to be trying to launder his personal wallet’s existing funds. On-chain transactions show a massive flow of funds from Sifu’s personal wallet.
Some DeFi leaders have posted messages of support for Dani, while condemning Sifu and recommending against his future involvement in any protocols. Other users are less supportive of Dani.
Emotions are high, and accusations are cheap. Dani-as-a-fed is probably a bit far-fetched, but the facts of the matter are just as fantastical.
- A confirmed financial criminal was allowed access to a massive warchest with little oversight
- Said criminal did so with the knowledge of the protocol’s founder
- Said founder defended the known criminal publicly
- Criminal was only removed from his position once the backlash became severe
We all want off Willy Wonka’s magical ride, Andre.
Dani’s other protocols are distancing themselves from the now-radioactive Wonderland protocol. $SPELL’s price has plummeted since the start of the controversy, although Abracadabra has historically been a strong product.
It’s been a wild three days. Sifu doxxed as a criminal, Wonderland a smoking, toxic ruin, and reputations being shattered in real time. $TIME will tell if Dani’s personal reputation or any of his protocols will survive, but it will be a hard fight to recover.
A swarm of legitimate questions need answering. Angry users who were hurt by the liquidation cascade that started all this still need to be soothed. Funds may need to be recovered from Sifu if fraud can be proven. The Frog Nation, once cohesive, is being broken apart and may never recover.
In the end, the real losers are the frogs. Dani’s true believers and staunch bagholders have suffered through much. They have lost much. It hurts to see them become the victims of a charlatan. We can only hope that Dani was legitimate in intention, and merely made poor decisions. If he was not being aboveboard, the pain has only begun.
