South Africa is looking at the country’s biggest cryptocurrency fraud as the two Africrypt founders, Raees and Ameer Cajee, disappeared with Bitcoins worth $3.6 billion belonging to the investors of the fund. Ameer Cajee, the chief operating officer of Africrypt, wrote to the investors on April 13, informing them that the investment platform has been hacked, forcing them to halt operations.
Africrypto founders suspected to be fled to the UK.
Ameer Cajee had said that the company was trying to recover the funds and urged the investors not to inform law enforcement as that might delay the recovery process. Africrypt investors include several high-profile South Africans and celebrities. A Cape Town law firm representing the victims suspects that the two founders have fled to the United Kingdom with around 69,000 Bitcoins. The massive amount involved easily makes it one of the biggest crypto frauds in the world, let alone South Africa.
Founders had transferred funds from clients’ wallets.
Cajee brothers, founders of Africrypt, had lured investors with a guarantee of jaw-dropping 10 percent daily returns on the investments, a claim which should have immediately raised suspensions. The Cape Town law firm further found that the brothers transferred pooled funds from the South African bank accounts and clients’ wallets and then broke the Bitcoins into pieces and sent them to mixers. Earlier, thousands of South Africans were defrauded by Mirror Trading International (MTI), a local Bitcoin trader company that is now under liquidation, for around 23,000 Bitcoins. However, unlike Africrypt, MTI had followed a pure multi-level marketing model. But both the companies claimed to be using computer algorithms for trading cryptocurrencies and generating profits.
