Key facts:
The bitcoin ATM company claims it suffered financial and reputational damage.
AlphaPoint is presumed to replace Athena as the Central American country’s technology provider.
Athena Bitcoin, the company in charge of developing the Chivo Wallet and manufacturing cryptocurrency ATMs for El Salvador, is suing its former chief technology officer, Sean Overton, for allegedly sabotaging the company’s business relationships with the Nayib Bukele government.
Overton, who previously served as president of software development company ROI Developers (now Accruvia), in September last year took over as chief technology officer of Athena when both companies agreed to work together.
At the time, Athena had signed a contract with the Salvadoran government to install 1,500 bitcoin ATMs across the country.
According to Athena, Overton hired unqualified personnel and violated confidentiality agreements by reveal to the Salvadoran government the flaws in the ATM software that the firm was preparing to deploy in the country.
“Overton and Accruvia told El Salvador that Athena struggled with software problems that they could help fix if the country agreed to hire them,” as revealed by a publication of the Law360 agency.
Also, Overton would have refused to finish the software he was developing without signing an additional contract and allegedly sent an email to a colleague announcing his refusal to work with “Indians,” referring to Salvadoran personnel.
Athena claims that the manner in which Overton acted caused her financial and reputational damage. After the alleged false statements of the then head of technology, the firm claims to have suffered damages of a minimum of 3 million dollars after President Nayib Bukele cut back on his orders.
Athena is then suing Overton for breach of liability, for not honoring her contract, and for ulterior motives at the time of signing the contract. In the lawsuit, he adds that his former chief technology officer, ROI and Accruvia they agreed to work together only with the idea of obtaining privileged information that they would later use to snatch away their agreement with the government of El Salvador.
El Salvador now has a new technology support provider
Earlier this month CriptoNoticias consulted with Athena Bitcoin about the status of its association with the government of El Salvador, but the company decided not to provide statements and has remained so until now.
However, a few days ago the Salvadoran presidency issued a statement stating that the US company Alphapoint will provide technological support to solve various problems with the state bitcoin wallet, Chivo Wallet.
Alphapoint is a company that provides asset exchange, liquidity and tokenization solutions, among other services. In its website, Chivo is already listed as one of its partners. Until now it is unknown if this company will now be responsible for all the agreements that Athena had with El Salvador. These included a Bitcoin payroll program for employees of the Central American country.