Cryptheory – Just Crypto

Cryptocurrencies are our life! Get an Overview of Market News

Duo vanishes with 69,000 BTC, stash worth $4 billion at peak BTC prices

2 min read

Two South African brothers made away with nearly 69,000 BTC earlier this year, hacking one ‘Africrypt,’ their own exchange platform, and bagging one of the biggest crypto heists in dollar terms ever.

Africrypt was set up in 2019 and advertised “bumper returns” for investors. But those hopes didn’t take long to turn into broken dreams.

The great BTC trouble

The troubles started back in April when Ameer Cajee, the elder brother, told clients that the company fell victim to a hack. At the time, Cajee told everyone to not report the incident to authorities at the time, citing an extended recovery process if the cops were involved.

But that did little to subside client fears. “We were immediately suspicious as the announcement implored investors not to take legal action,” said legal firm Hanekom Attorneys, the legal team appointed to work on the case. “Africrypt employees lost access to the back-end platforms seven days before the alleged hack,” it added.

Calls made by the lawyers to both Cajee and Raees Cajee, his younger brother, went straight to voicemail. The company website is non-functional at the month, and all employees remain in the dark as well.

Billion-dollar stash

During investigations, Hanekom Attorneys found Africrypt’s pooled funds were transferred from its South African accounts and client wallets via “tumblers” and “mixers”—software which jumbled up BTC addresses to make them ‘untraceable’—and other BTC pools.

The stash—worth $2.3 billion today—was worth over $4.4 billion during BTC’s price peak of $64,000 in mid-April. It is many multiples of South Africa’s $140 million daily trading volume and comes as a jolt of shock to local lawmakers, many of whom have been scrambling to regulate the crypto scene in the country recently.

The Africrypt case comes months after another South African company, Mirror Trading International, made away with over 29,000 BTC, or over $1.2 billion at the time. 

Meanwhile, local authorities are said to be on the lookout for the brothers, but the duo seem to have vanished without a trace thus far. Hawks, an elite unit of the national police force has, however, been informed about the matter, and international crypto exchanges have been kept in the loop as well for any suspicious BTC withdrawals.

The post Duo vanishes with 69,000 BTC, stash worth $4 billion at peak BTC prices appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Source

All content in this article is for informational purposes only and in no way serves as investment advice. Investing in cryptocurrencies, commodities and stocks is very risky and can lead to capital losses.
BlackRock (IBIT), the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), Fidelity (FBTC), Ark Invest/21Shares (ARKB), Bitwise (BITB), Franklin (EZBC), Invesco/Galaxy (BTCO), VanEck (HODL), Valkyrie (BRRR), WisdomTree (BTCW), Hashdex (DEFI)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *