• Users of the Philippine payroll software SALPay have reported distress as their bank accounts were allegedly frozen for two months, resulting in complaints on social media.
• A Reddit post highlights the issue, stating that all user bank accounts have been frozen since August, the firm’s CEO has disappeared, and its offices have been closed.
• SALPay/Salarium conducted an initial coin offering (ICO) in 2017. By November 2018, the company began offering refunds for those who bought the tokens.

Users of the Philippine payroll software SALPay have expressed distress as their bank accounts have reportedly been frozen for two months. The users have taken to social media to complain about the issue.

Check out our previous articles about SALPay.

What happened?

A netizen recently posted on Reddit about the current situation regarding the two-month-old issue with the end-to-end payroll solution Salarium and its software SALPay. 

According to the post, all bank accounts of its users have been frozen since August. The firm’s CEO, Judah Hirsch, has “vanished without a trace”, and its offices have been shut down. 

Vanishing CEO, Frozen Accounts: the Salarium and Salpay Scam
byu/manongmatigasulo inPhilippines

“It’s like daylight robbery, and it seems no one’s lifting a finger. They did this during the worst time ever where inflation is pretty crazy,” they wrote.

In addition, the Reddit post also asserts that Salarium removed some of its online presence, including its Crunchbase profile—it is a company providing business information about private and public companies.

“It’s like they’re trying to cover their tracks. These also deleted hundreds of comments from angry victims. And as for those “salpay coins,” consider them off-limits. Nagrug-pull na!” they added on the social media post.

The netizen expressed concern for the affected employees and appealed to the authorities to investigate the matter. Their post noted that the victims have already reached out to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), and Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), “but it’s all falling on deaf ears.” 

They also emphasized that their lawyer is at a loss as to what to do in this case, as the company no longer has a physical address.

They also voiced concerns regarding the possibility of these fraudsters vanishing with people’s funds and questioned whether the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation (PDIC) would step in to assist, or if the central bank, entrusted with the responsibility of safeguarding the public’s financial security, remains passive in this regard.

“If the BSP keeps ignoring this mess, our trust in digital banks is going down the drain. It’s like confiding your deepest secrets in a best friend, only to have them spill the beans. That’s the level of betrayal we’re dealing with here,” they concluded.

In another Reddit post 2 months ago, a redditor that introduced himself as Richmond, inquired about the use of Salarium and Salpay for payroll and attendance. According to his post, they discovered that funds in their Salarium account were put on hold due to a reconciliation issue with partner bank Unionbank, preventing deposits and withdrawals. 

As of this writing, the matter remains unresolved and the post is still attracting comments expressing complaints about the firm.

Is the firm registered in PH?

Salarium Payments Corporation (Salpay) and its products and services, Salpay for Business and Salarium Payment Corporation, were issued a license, OPSCOR-2023-0004, on January 26, 2023, as per the list of BSP Registered Operator of Payment System (OPS).

What is Salarium and SALPay?

According to its LinkedIn account, Salarium offers a comprehensive payroll solution for global companies, integrating five key components into a single platform. These components include Time & Attendance with various entry methods, Leave monitoring, and expense reimbursement that allows employees to submit expenses globally and process them with payroll. 

It also claims that the platform is capable of processing payroll for thousands of employees worldwide, offering flexibility in terms of in-house, fully outsourced, or hybrid solutions. Moreover, it also provides disbursement solutions for instant global employee payments and ensures compliance by partnering with a trusted network for tax compliance in over 110 countries.

SALPay ICO

In 2017, the firm introduced SALPay tokens to help businesses and individuals abroad to send money to the Philippines faster—currently the project is noted as an untracked listing on CoinMarketCap.

In a February 2018, a report from Fintech News said Salarium raised $13.5 million in an initial coin offering (ICO).

By November 2018, Hirsch announced a refund to everyone who bought tokens during the ICO.

BitPinas has contacted SALPAy for comments.

This article is published on BitPinas: Users of SALPay (Salarium), Which ICO’d in 2017, Had Their Accounts Frozen, CEO Unreachable?

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