Brothers Who Founded Africrypt Escape With $3.6 Billion In Bitcoin

Two African brothers who founded cryptocurrency investment platform Africrypt have disappeared, and along with them $3.6 billion in bitcoin from their crypto platform.

Biggest Scam In Crypto History?

According to reports, police are investigating what could be one of the biggest crypto thefts in history.

Africrypt is a cryptocurrency investment platform based in South Africa. Founded by young brothers Ameer (17) and Raees Cajee (21), the pool offered huge returns for investors.

In April 2021, around when Bitcoin was riding all-time highs, Chief Operating Officer announced that the company was under a hack.

In the notification, however, Cajee asked investors not to seek legal help as it will slow down the recovery process.

It was immediately a red sign, and some investors hired Hanekom Attorneys, a law firm, to look into the case.

Reports say that Africrypt employees lost access to backend servers a week before Cajee revealed the alleged hack to the investors.

Hanekom Attorneys found that the Bitcoin from the Africrypt pool has been sent through methods that make it hard to trace. Such methods include sending the coins to other large pools, or through tumblers and mixers.

The company website is down. Both Cajee brothers have their phone numbers set to voicemail. They have disappeared, along with almost 69,000 Bitcoins.

Africa’s Finance Sector Conduct Authority is also looking into the case. However, since Bitcoin isn’t considered a legal financial asset, the regulator hasn’t been able to launch a formal investigation.

Now, according to reports, Hanekom Attorneys has reported to the Hawks, an elite group of the police force, regarding the disappearance of the two brothers.

The law firm has also alerted global crypto exchanges to report if there are any attempts to sell off the stolen Bitcoins.

This isn’t the first time something like this has happened in the country. Just last year, another company, Mirror Trading International, was involved in a case where investors had lost $1.2 billion in Bitcoins.

The nearly 69,000 Bitcoins stolen in the Africrypt case were worth more than $4 billion during April when the incident occurred. Around three times as much as the fraud in 2020, which was dubbed as the biggest cryptocurrency scam in 2020.

The African brothers scam is possibly the biggest in the entire history of the cryptocurrency, and it might provoke governments to become serious about crypto regulation.