Decentraland founders Ordano and Meilich join list of Genesis creditors
Quick Take
- Decentraland co-founders Esteban Ordano and Ari Meilich were listed as points of contact for companies invested in Genesis Global.
- Reports earlier noted that Decentraland CFO Santiago Esponda was named as a point of contact for Heliva International, to which Genesis Global owes $55 million.
Virtual world platform Decentraland has not one but three of its executives and founders listed among the 50 largest non-insider unsecured claims against Genesis Global, the crypto lender that filed for bankruptcy protection on Thursday.
Decentraland CFO Santiago Esponda drew attention after his Decentraland email address was listed in court filings as the contact for Heliva International, a Panama-based company owed $55 million by Genesis. But a closer look reveals that Decentraland's two co-founders are also listed in the documents with non-Decentraland email addresses.
Esteban Ordano, a Decentraland co-founder who now acts as an adviser, is listed as the contact for an entity called Winah Securities. Genesis owes Winah, which is located on the same floor in the same building as Heliva, almost $27 million. Ordano told The Block that Winah has no relationship with Decentraland.
Gaming company Big Time Studios is owed $20 million. It’s run by Ari Meilich, Decentraland's other co-founder. He started Big Time in 2020 but also remains a Decentraland adviser. Meilich declined to comment.
Ripio link
Another link with Decentraland is through Cayman Islands-registered Ripio, a credit company that launched a mortgage service for purchasing Decentraland virtual land in 2018.
Genesis Global, the lending unit of Digital Currency Group's Genesis brokerage, filed for bankruptcy protection late yesterday after failing in a bid to raise fresh cash. The firm had frozen customer funds in November following the collapse of crypto exchange giant FTX.
Genesis owes more than $3.6 billion to its top 50 creditors.
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