The Authorities in South Africa believe two brothers have defrauded users of a crypto investment platform of $3.6 billion, Bloomberg has reported.
A Cape Town-based law firm has reportedly been hired by the investors, who have been unable to locate Africrypt's owners. In addition, the application has been lodged with the South African police special police unit "Hawks." The victims are appealing to crypto exchanges around the world in order to prevent them from being able to convert the cryptos to fiat money and withdraw the funds.
Africrypt was founded in 2019 by brothers Ameer and Raees Cajee. The platform attracted investors by promising high returns that could reach 10% per day.
They are believed to have stolen 69,000 Bitcoins or $3.6 billion, making this potential scam one of the largest in the history of the crypto industry. This amount exceeds the damage from the activities of the Chinese crypto pyramid PlusToken, in which, according to official estimates, investors lost $2.25 billion.
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South Africa’s Finance Sector Conduct Authority is investigating Africrypt, however, it cannot open an official investigation, as cryptos are not considered a financial product in the country.
The brothers have yet to be found and calls to their phone numbers are forwarded to voicemail. A court has provisionally approved the liquidation of Africrypt and has given the company's owners a deadline of July 19 to challenge the decision.