7 October 2022
Founders of South African Bitcoin Exchange Disappears With $3.6B in BTC
The Founders of the South African Cryptocurrency Exchange, AfriCrypt, goes missing with 69,000 Bitcoin worth $3.6 billion.
AfriCrypt, was founded in 2019 by brothers Ameer and Rees Cajee. The firm had reportedly gathered around 54 billion rands worth of BTC, or $3.6 billion at the time, when it delivered a message to investors on 13th April 2021 claiming the platform had been hacked, forcing them to halt operations. However, the facts are yet to be proven in the court, but if it turns out to be an exit scam rather than a hack, it would be the biggest in history according to Bloomberg. There were warning signs for investors either way, as users were promised returns of up to 10% a day.
Hanekom Attorneys, the South African Law Firm that has taken the case on behalf of affected users, said suspicions were roused as the message included the warning that: “clients may proceed the legal route but we ask clients to please acknowledge that this will only delay the recovery process.” “We are immediately suspicious as the announcement implored investors not to take legal actions.” “Africrypt employees lost access to the back-end platforms seven days before the alleged hack,” claimed Hanekom Attorneys.
To make the funds untraceable, the brothers transferred the 69,000 BTC from AfriCrypt’s accounts and client wallets, and subjected the funds “to various dark web tumbles and mixers, resulting in severe fragmentation,” alleges Hanekom Attorneys.
The brother's Ameer and Rees Cajee have been unreachable, with calls going directly to voicemail, while the AfriCrypt website is also down. Besides Hanekom Attorneys, has reported the case to an elite unit of the national police dubbed the “Hawks.” Furthermore, the high court of South Africa, Gauteng South High Court, has granted a provisional liquidation order against the Cajee brothers and has granted time till 19th July 2021 to respond to the order.
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