{"id":31598,"date":"2021-06-26T14:34:02","date_gmt":"2021-06-26T14:34:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/tanzania\/?p=31598"},"modified":"2021-06-26T14:30:01","modified_gmt":"2021-06-26T14:30:01","slug":"africrypt-brothers-deny-involvement-in-bitcoin-heist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/tanzania\/miscellaneous\/africrypt-brothers-deny-involvement-in-bitcoin-heist","title":{"rendered":"Africrypt brothers deny involvement in Bitcoin ‘heist’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press<\/a> – Tanzania<\/a>. <\/strong><\/span>By Chris VallanceTechnology Reporter<\/p>\n

A lawyer for two brothers who founded a South African Bitcoin investment firm has told the BBC they categorically deny any involvement in a “heist”.<\/b><\/p>\n

Africrypt, founded by Raees and Ameer Cajee, “absconded” with Bitcoin then valued at about \u00a32.6bn ($3.6bn), according to a complaint to police.<\/p>\n

A law firm – Hanekom Attorneys – made the complaint in April on behalf of a group of investors.<\/p>\n

But there is uncertainty over exactly how much crypto-currency is missing.<\/p>\n

On its now inactive website, Africrypt described itself as “an investment firm exclusively focused on crypto-currency and blockchain technology”.<\/p>\n

The company, founded in 2019, told investors in only a few years it had grown from a one-man operation running out of a bedroom to “one of Africa’s largest and most successful AI trading companies”.<\/p>\n

Hack claimed<\/b><\/p>\n

On 13 April, chief operating officer Ameer Cajee wrote to Africrypt clients announcing the firm had halted operations because of a hack.<\/p>\n

“Our system, client accounts, client wallets and nodes were all compromised,” he wrote.<\/p>\n

The letter advised investors not to pursue the “legal route” as that would “only delay the recovery process”.<\/p>\n

Some of the investors who lost access to their money are represented by law firm Hanekom Attorneys.<\/p>\n

The law firm said Bitcoin valued at $3.6bn had been “dissipated in its entirety”, in a complaint sent to an elite South African police unit, known as the Hawks.<\/p>\n

The investigation into where the bitcoins went had been hampered by the use of “various dark web tumblers and mixers”, the law firm wrote.<\/p>\n

That refers to technologies that can make it harder to trace bitcoins.<\/p>\n

The law firm said its analysis led it to believe that describing this as a hack was “misplaced”.<\/p>\n

Brothers’ response<\/b><\/p>\n

Lawyer John Oosthuizen, who represents Raees and Ameer Cajee, told the BBC the brothers “categorically denied” they had been involved in a “heist” or had absconded with funds.<\/p>\n

“There is no foundation to the accusation and there’s no merit to those accusations,” he said.<\/p>\n

“They maintain that it was a hack, and they were fleeced of these assets,” he added.<\/p>\n

He declined to confirm the $3.6bn value for the Bitcoin lost, and noted media reports suggesting the value was an overestimate.<\/p>\n

Asked by the BBC if the brothers had contacted the police after the alleged hack, Mr Oosthuizen said: “No.”<\/p>\n

But he added that they were young men aged 18 and 20 with “very little life experience”.<\/p>\n

He said the brothers had received death threats and their first reaction was to keep themselves and their families safe.<\/p>\n

He said his firm was working to prepare a dossier to demonstrate to the authorities that Africrypt had been hacked and the brothers had been the victim of theft.<\/p>\n

He said Raees and Ameer Cajee would co-operate with any future inquiries by the authorities.<\/p>\n

But at present they had not been notified of any investigation.<\/p>\n

Amount held<\/b><\/p>\n

Questions have been raised about amount of Bitcoin Africrypt is said to have held.<\/p>\n

An investor who spoke to the BBC on condition of anonymity argued that while the losses were considerable they were very much less than the billions that had been reported.<\/p>\n

An archive of Africrypt’s website from Jan 2021 also suggests it was holding less than $3.6bn in assets: “We manage over $100m across our venture fund and AI-driven trading platform,” it read.<\/p>\n

Financial inquiries<\/b><\/p>\n

The Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) said, in a press release, that crypto-assets are not regulated in South Africa “and consequently the FSCA is not in a position to take any regulatory action”.<\/p>\n

The press release said Africrypt, “was offering exceptionally high and unrealistic returns”.<\/p>\n

The BBC has asked South African police if an investigation is under way but they have not yet responded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Tanzania. By Chris VallanceTechnology Reporter A lawyer for two brothers who founded a South African Bitcoin investment firm has told the BBC they categorically deny any involvement in a “heist”. Africrypt, founded by Raees and Ameer Cajee, “absconded” with Bitcoin then valued at about \u00a32.6bn ($3.6bn), according to a complaint to police. A […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":31597,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,9,16],"tags":[6990,6991,8025,7506,711],"class_list":["post-31598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-miscellaneous","category-twitter","tag-africa-press-2","tag-africa-press-tanzania","tag-africrypt","tag-bitcoin","tag-tanzania"],"yoast_head":"\nAfricrypt brothers deny involvement in Bitcoin 'heist' - Tanzania<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"By Chris VallanceTechnology Reporter A lawyer for two brothers who founded a South African Bitcoin investment firm h ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/tanzania\/miscellaneous\/africrypt-brothers-deny-involvement-in-bitcoin-heist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Africrypt brothers deny involvement in Bitcoin 'heist'\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Chris VallanceTechnology Reporter A lawyer for two brothers who founded a South African Bitcoin investment firm h ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/tanzania\/miscellaneous\/africrypt-brothers-deny-involvement-in-bitcoin-heist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Tanzania\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-06-26T14:34:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/tanzania\/sites\/17\/2021\/06\/img-60d739a0856de.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"976\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"549\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/tanzania\/miscellaneous\/africrypt-brothers-deny-involvement-in-bitcoin-heist#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/tanzania\/miscellaneous\/africrypt-brothers-deny-involvement-in-bitcoin-heist\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/tanzania\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Africrypt brothers deny involvement in Bitcoin ‘heist’\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-06-26T14:34:02+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/tanzania\/miscellaneous\/africrypt-brothers-deny-involvement-in-bitcoin-heist\"},\"wordCount\":636,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/tanzania\/miscellaneous\/africrypt-brothers-deny-involvement-in-bitcoin-heist#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/tanzania\/sites\/17\/2021\/06\/img-60d739a0856de.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Tanzania\",\"Africrypt\",\"Bitcoin\",\"tanzania\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"miscellaneous\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/tanzania\/miscellaneous\/africrypt-brothers-deny-involvement-in-bitcoin-heist#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/tanzania\/miscellaneous\/africrypt-brothers-deny-involvement-in-bitcoin-heist\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/tanzania\/miscellaneous\/africrypt-brothers-deny-involvement-in-bitcoin-heist\",\"name\":\"Africrypt brothers deny involvement in Bitcoin 'heist' - 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