South African Siblings Vanish Along With Billions In Bitcoin In Alleged Heist

Two brothers from South Africa have mysteriously vanished along with reportedly $3.6 billion worth of bitcoin that was housed on their cryptocurrency platform. But it appears there is more to the whole thing with investors seeking the aid of a law firm to find out what transpired.

The law firm tasked to figure out what happened is Hanekom Attorneys. The whole thing was already reported to the Hawks, an elite unit of South Africa’s national police force. Aside from that, the law firm also reported the matter to South African financial regulators and crypto exchanges all over the world.

The brothers behind it were identified as Ameer and Raees Cajee. Both set up the crypto investment service in 2019.

In April, a surprise twist of events was reported. It was about this time when the price of bitcoin surged. Ameer, the Chief Operating Officer of Africrypt, at that time informed investors that their company had been hacked. But rather than seeking help from authorities, Ameer instead told clients not to report the incident. His reason at that time was because their efforts to recover from the hacking would be affected.

It was at that point when investors became suspicious. They contacted and sought the help of Hanekom Attorneys.

“We were immediately suspicious as the announcement implored investors not to take legal action,” the law firm said in a statement. “Africrypt employees lost access to the back-end platforms seven days before the alleged hack.”

When the firm looked into the transactions, they found that the pooled funds were transferred from its South African accounts and clients' wallets and pooled together with other bitcoin transactions. This made it impossible to trace.

Aside from the law firm, South Africa’s Finance Sector Conduct Authority has also looked into the matter. The only problem is that they cannot launch a formal investigation because bitcoin and other cryptos are not legally considered financial products.

Efforts were made to contact Ameer. He responded by email to direct all questions to their attorney. However, he did not give the name of the attorney as well as the contact information.

The South African judge has ruled in favor of the group made up of about 20 investors. A provisional liquidation order against the brothers was granted in April. Both have until July 19 to argue against the liquidation.