{"id":55776,"date":"2022-01-12T17:00:26","date_gmt":"2022-01-12T15:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=55776"},"modified":"2025-09-04T03:17:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T00:17:13","slug":"south-african-police-launch-investigation-into-possible-fraud-by-africrypt-founders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/south-african-police-launch-investigation-into-possible-fraud-by-africrypt-founders\/","title":{"rendered":"South African police launch investigation into possible fraud by Africrypt founders"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>South African authorities (SA) have begun investigating a number of criminal cases filed at the request of investors in the bankrupt cryptocurrency platform Africrypt. <a href=\\\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2022-01-11\/crypto-losses-probed-by-south-african-cops-after-brothers-vanish\\\">Bloomberg<\/a> reports.<\/p>\n<p>Claimants seek fraud charges and the arrest of Africrypt&#8217;s founders, brothers Amir and Reis Kaegi.<\/p>\n<p>The police are examining the circumstances of the incident.<\/p>\n<p>In April 2021, Africrypt ceased operations, saying it had been hacked. Amir and Reis Kaegi disappeared, as did the firm&#8217;s customer funds. Initially, media reported that <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/africrypt-founders-deny-3-6bn-fraud-allegations\">customer funds in the company&#8217;s reserves totaled $3.6 billion<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Hanekom Attorneys, hired to investigate victims of Africrypt&#8217;s bankruptcy, <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/south-african-bank-denies-link-to-3-6-billion-cryptocurrency-fraud\">claimed<\/a> that the brothers used mixing services to conceal traces of fraud.<\/p>\n<p>The founders rejected the allegations and said that <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/africrypt-fraud-suspects-put-forward-loss-figure-of-3-6-billion\">the amount under Africrypt&#8217;s management was significantly lower<\/a>. According to Reis Kaegi, it amounted to just over $200 million.<\/p>\n<p>He also said that the brothers were in hiding due to death threats.<\/p>\n<p>In November, an unidentified investor said he intended <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/investor-ready-to-spend-5m-to-rescue-africrypt\">to buy 51% of Africrypt<\/a> on condition that the criminal cases against the Kaegi brothers be dropped. He also proposed appointing them as the firm&#8217;s leaders again.<\/p>\n<p>Read ForkLog&#8217;s bitcoin news on our Telegram \u2014 cryptocurrency news, prices and analysis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>South African authorities (SA) have begun investigating a number of criminal cases filed following investors&#8217; complaints against the bankrupt cryptocurrency platform Africrypt. Bloomberg reports.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":55777,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"1","news_style_id":"1","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1154,1444,1839],"class_list":["post-55776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-crimes","tag-law-enforcement","tag-south-africa"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"11","promo_type":"1","layout_type":"1","short_excerpt":"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55776"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55776\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55778,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55776\/revisions\/55778"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}