Vauld allows Indian creditors to withdraw funds on or before Oct 16; appoints new board

Darshan Bathija and Sanju Sony Kurian, the previous directors of DeFi Payments Lte—the company which ran Vauld, have both resigned from the firm.

Vauld allows Indian creditors to withdraw funds on or before Oct 16; appoints new board

Friday October 13, 2023,

2 min Read

Cryptocurrency exchange Vauld, which shut its operations last year and had begun bankruptcy proceedings, confirmed to its Indian creditors that they can begin availing their funds on or before October 16.

The company made the confirmation during a townhall held for creditors on October 12.

As per a presentation to creditors, a new board has taken charge of the company. The board consists of Nandu Gopal V, Jason Aleksander Kardachi, and Damir Butmir, who took charge of Vauld effective September 27. Darshan Bathija and Sanju Sony Kurian, the previous directors of DeFi Payments Lte—the company which ran Vauld, have both resigned from the firm.

Nandu Gopal will be taking over as CEO of DeFi Payments, while Kardachi will serve as the scheme manager of the bankruptcy proceedings, and Butmir will represent creditors. "I have been with Vauld since early last year... since July 4... I have been working closely with Kroll and team in order to work a way out for each one of you," he told creditors at the townhall.

YourStory has viewed the presentation as well as the townhall proceedings.

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What is happening at Vauld?

Among the options presented to creditors, they chose a reverse Dutch auction. In the process, the buyer announces a list of the products and quantity needed and the price.

As per DeFi Payments, it began the option for withdrawals from September 13—prior to the date listed by the scheme of the court, which is September 25.

Its Indian entity Flipvolt confirmed that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) is yet to unfreeze its assets. The law enforcement agency had frozen the accounts in a raid in August last year.

The company also said that it has begun issuing payments to creditors who have verified their bank details from October 9 and that the funds have been credited directly to their bank accounts.

For those creditors who had the USDC stablecoin, the payments will be made on or before October 16. An appeal filed by the company in the Appellate Adjudicating Authority (AAA) in May will have its hearing in November.

"If the appeal with AAA is rejected the next steps will be to have the case heard in the high court of India," it said as per the presentation.

DeFi Payments has also filed a proof of claims with FTX's liquidators within its requisite timeline to receive funds.


Edited by Kanishk Singh