AfriCrypt Founders Deny Stealing Worth $3.6B of Bitcoin

Today, AfriCrypt’s founders deny stealing the billions of investor funds, asserting they went into hiding because of death threats. Raees Cajee, the co-founder of the Sotuh African crypto investment platform further reveals that the platform lost $5M from hackers.

It can be recalled, the Cajee brothers made it into headlines when they went missing few days ago. The brothers were accused of disappearing with 69,000 Bitcoin worth $3.6 billion of investor funds. Previously, they notified the users about the hacking incident via email and they already shut down the AfriCrypt’s website.

Of note, AfriCrypt was founded in 2019 by the Cajee brothers – Ameer (17) and Raees (20). Speaking with The Wall Street Journal on June 28, Raees sought to counter the accusations against AfriCrypt and its founders.

Furthermore, Raees said they went into hiding after receiving death threats from ‘very dangerous people’. He also rejected the claims that the $3.6 billion funds is missing, asserting the firm only managed $200 million during its peak last April. Thus, only $5 million in investor funds are unaccounted for after the hack.

Hanekon Attorneys, the law firm representing AfriCrypt’s customers, alleges that Cajee brothers transferred the money to various dark web tumblers to prevent the funds from being traced.

Meanwhile, John Oosthuizen, lawyer representing the Cajee brothers, told the BBC,

They maintain that it was a hack, and they were fleeced of these assets.

According to the WSJ, there’s a separate group of investors seeking AfriCrypt’s liquidation right now.  Lastly, the brothers plan to make an appearance on July 19 for a court hearing regarding their claims.