Anger is raging on the side of Leetchi users, the platform for creating prize pools online. Certain testimonies state disappearance of pots, blocked access or money impossible to touch. During the confinement, the site was widely used to help caregivers or people in difficulty facing the Covid-19. Pascale Prestat, a Parisian chocolate maker, had collected 1,600 euros in donations to offer chocolates to the nursing staff, but by the time she collected the money, her kitty had disappeared. Searching on social networks, she finds a Facebook group in which 3,000 users share the same concern. Alix Poulet, CEO of Leetchi, reacts on Europe 1.
>> Watch Matthieu Belliard's morning show in replay and in podcast here
No disappearance of prize pools
"Fortunately there is no disappearance of the pot. We are in a very sensitive period, the health crisis has revealed the best and the worst, it has generated an unprecedented surge of solidarity and an upsurge in malicious acts. These two factors have forced us to be extra vigilant to ensure the security of collective funds ", assures Alix Poulet. "In this case, this kitty may have been the object of an attempted fraudulent expenditure and we therefore blocked the funds. The time to secure the kitty, it was made inaccessible."
"I want to reassure the creators of the pots and the participants, no pot disappears and we guarantee to users that the funds will go well to the legitimate beneficiaries of the collections," she continues.
>> READ ALSO - EDITORIAL - "Condemning solidarity is a problem": Jean-Michel Aphatie denounces the closure of the Leetchi kitty in support of the ex-boxer
However, some users have seen their kitty blocked long before the sanitary period. A lawyer defends in particular several creators of kitty whose prejudice dates back to last year. In addition, according to the lawyer, the general conditions of Leetchi do not indicate that the company has the right to exercise a right of retention on the pot, for any reason. "We understand the legitimate frustration of some creators who are waiting to receive the funds collected from their kitty. And I apologize for the extended processing times", begins Alix Poulet.
Pools subject to manual checks
"We have no interest in keeping the sums that are collected on our platforms. We have a banking license which allows us to offer a payment service, which absolutely does not authorize us to place the funds collected. does not make these sums grow. The sums that we keep, we have to secure them. This costs us money: technical costs, security, bank charges ", contextualizes the director-general.
>> READ ALSO: Shopping, childcare ... A platform to serve the "heroes" of containment
"Simply, we are a regulated establishment, approved as an intermediary in crowdfunding, and as such we have the obligation to verify the purpose of the pots and the correct destination of the funds. For this we have verification tools that allow the vast majority of pools to be validated automatically, all you need is a simple piece of ID. And then for certain, when there is suspicion about the use of funds, we proceed to checks manual ", explains Alix Poulet.
It was these checks, she said, that were made more complex by the health crisis. Leetchi had to face a double challenge. Both a very large pool volume created in a month (around 10,000 pools in connection with the Covid-19 and 18 million euros collected), but in parallel the upsurge in malicious acts which would have also prompted the authorities to invite all actors to demonstrate enhanced control measures.