South Africa BTC Scam: How Two Brothers Duped Investors $4bn

Crypto currency investors in South Africa have been reportedly scammed $4bn by Africrypt owned by two brothers.

The company was set up in 2019 by Raees, 20, and Ameer Cajee the elder brother and the Chief Executive Officer.

In April Africrypt emailed its clients that it had been hacked.

Afrincrypt which accounts for many high profiled South Africans and celebrities said the hack was on April 13.

It wrote, “We regret to inform you that due to the recent breach in our system, client accounts, client wallets and nodes were all compromised. At this point it is unknown to us the extent of personal client information breached during the attack.

“Unfortunately, this has forced Africrypt to halt operations. We have begun the process of attempting to retrieve stolen funds and compromised information. Our number one priority is retrieving the funds as speedily as possible, however, this process is very wary and will take a substantial amount of time to complete, if successful.”

About $4bn (R54bn) was wiped out of many wallets managed by Raees and Ameer.

This is an equivalent of about 69,000 coins, according to report.

The two brothers asked clients not to report the hack to authorities for seamless recovery of assets from the hackers.

It added, “We urge all clients to please be patient as we attempt to resolve the situation at hand. It is understandable that clients may proceed the legal route, but we ask clients to please acknowledge that this will only delay the recovery process.”

Hanekom Attorneys representing some investors said, “We were immediately suspicious as the announcement implored investors not to take legal action.

“Africrypt employees lost access to the back-end platforms seven days before the alleged hack.”

Last year, South African Bitcoin trader, Mirror Trading International also made away with 23,000 digital coins worth about $1.2bn.

MTI scam was the biggest crypto currency scam in 2020.