{"id":286576,"date":"2021-06-29T14:47:09","date_gmt":"2021-06-29T11:47:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/man-accused-of-stealing-3-6b-in-bitcoin-claims-much-less-is-missing\/"},"modified":"2021-06-29T14:47:09","modified_gmt":"2021-06-29T11:47:09","slug":"man-accused-of-stealing-3-6b-in-bitcoin-claims-much-less-is-missing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/man-accused-of-stealing-3-6b-in-bitcoin-claims-much-less-is-missing\/","title":{"rendered":"#Man accused of stealing $3.6B in bitcoin claims much less is missing"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Man accused of stealing $3.6B in bitcoin claims much less is missing<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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The South African cryptocurrency entrepreneur, who was accused along with his brother of stealing $3.6 billion worth of bitcoin, claimed in a new interview that much less than that is missing from investors\u2019 wallets. <\/p>\n

Raees Cajee, 21, and his 18-year-old brother Ameer are now in hiding because they\u2019ve been receiving death threats, the elder Cajee told The Wall Street Journal<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The older brother also said that at the peak of the bitcoin rally earlier this year, his company, Africrypt, managed just over $200 million, a far cry from the $3.6 billion that a law firm hired by disgruntled investors says is missing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe dealt with a lot of high-level South Africans, a lot of politicians, a lot of high-level businessmen within South Africa, as well as celebrities,\u201d Cajee told the Journal. \u201cSome particularly very, very dangerous people \u2014 that we had not actually known were clients \u2014 have started to come out of the cracks.\u201d<\/p>\n

The two Cajee brothers founded their cryptocurrency investment platform in 2019. But in April, as the price of bitcoin surged to an all-time high, Africrypt told investors that the company had been hacked.<\/p>\n

Frustrated investors hired lawyers, who investigated and said that about $3.6 billion worth of bitcoin had disapp<\/a>eared from Africrypt\u2019s South African accounts.<\/p>\n

But Raees Cajee told the Journal Monday from a location that he wouldn\u2019t disclose that the firm\u2019s portfolio never reached nearly that size. <\/p>\n

\"A
Raees and Ameer Cajee announced to investors in April that Africrypt had been hacked and asked them to not report the incident to the authorities or lawyers.<\/figcaption>
AFP via Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

He added that no more than $5 million is currently missing, according to the Journal.<\/p>\n

Raees Cajee also said he and his brother plan to return to South Africa for a July 19 court date tied to the liquidation proceedings against Africrypt.<\/p>\n

Africrpyt\u2019s investors first became suspicious of the brother team in April, after the younger Cajee, who served as chief operating officer, announced that the company had been hacked and made the unusual request of asking clients not to report the incident to authorities or lawyers. <\/p>\n

But a group of skeptical investors contacted Cape Town-based Hanekom Attorneys, \u201cwhich focuses on all aspects of the cryptocurrency industry\u201d and advises \u201clarge volume traders, exchanges and arbitrage companies.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were immedia<\/a>tely suspicious as the announcement implored investors not to take legal action,\u201d the law firm said last week in a statement. \u201cAfricrypt employees lost access to the back-end platforms seven days before the alleged hack.\u201d<\/p>\n

Representatives for Hanekom did not immediately return The Post\u2019s request for comment on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Ameer Cajee declined to comment.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately I cannot give any statements regarding Africrypt as I was only an employee of the company,\u201d he told The Post by email. \u201cMy employment was terminated on the 25th of April 2021.\u201d<\/p>\n

His attorney, John Oosthuizen, did not return The Post\u2019s request for comment. <\/p>\n

South Africa\u2019s Finance Sector Conduct Authority is also looking into the company, Hanekom Attorneys said last week, but the agency has said it can\u2019t launch a formal investigation because bitcoin and other cryptos are not legally considered financial products.<\/p>\n

Hanekom also said it has reported the incident to the Hawks, an elite unit of South Africa\u2019s national police force.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Darren
Darren Hanekom is one of the lawyers approached by a group of Africrypt investors who were suspicious of the request to not report the hack.<\/figcaption>
REUTERS<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The alleged heist comes after another South African bitcoin trader, Mirror Trading International, collapsed last year. The losses included about $1.2 billion in cryptos, with some calling it the biggest cryptocurrency scam of 2020.<\/p>\n

The two Cajee brothers were profiled in a December cover story by local outlet The Umhlanga Magazine. The story, which outlined the Cajees\u2019 success in launching their own business, appears to have since been\u00a0taken offline<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe vision for Africrypt has always been to develop the first African cryptocurrency-focused bank, providing decentralised finance to the people who need it most, giving easy access to capital for young entrepreneurs, and stimulating growth and prosperity,\u201d the brothers were quoted as\u00a0saying in a joint interview<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur goal is to bridge the gap between cryptocurrency and fiat currency, making it a seamless transition between the two.\u201d\n <\/p><\/div>\n

If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#Man accused of stealing $3.6B in bitcoin claims much less is missing” The South African cryptocurrency entrepreneur, who was accused along with his brother of stealing $3.6 billion worth of bitcoin, claimed in a new interview that much less than that is missing from investors\u2019 wallets. Raees Cajee, 21, and his 18-year-old brother Ameer are…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":286577,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/06\/africrypt-36.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[74862,110619,76127,71101],"class_list":["post-286576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-bitcoin","tag-6-29-21","tag-cryptocurrency","tag-scams"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=286576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286576\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/286577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=286576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=286576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=286576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}