Two South African brothers have allegedly disappeared along with 69,000 bitcoin worth $3.6 billion that was domiciliated on their cryptocurrency investment platform Africrypt.
A Cape Town-based law firm hired by the affected investors, Hanekom Attorneys, said in a statement that it cannot find the founders of Africrypt, Ameer and Raees Cajee, according to the media reports.
The brothers are believed to have fled to the United Kingdom (UK) with bitcoin worth $3.6 billion.
It was learnt that Africrypt had warned the clients in April regarding a hack when the bitcoin global rates were at their highest, besides asking their clients not to alert law enforcement authorities or lawyers otherwise the recovery process would be slowed down.
The firm told Bloomberg, “We were immediately suspicious as the announcement implored investors not to take legal action.” It added, “Africrypt employees lost access to the back-end platforms seven days before the alleged hack.”
The law firm has reported the incident to the Hawks, South Africa’s police unit which targets serious crimes like organised crime and corruption, after failing to track the brothers down.
It is the second big loss to hit South African cryptocurrency investors in the last two years with Johann Steynberg, CEO of trading platform Mirror Trading International, disappearing with 23,000 bitcoins.
