#Man accused of stealing $3.6B in bitcoin claims much less is missing

The South African cryptocurrency entrepreneur, who was accused along with his brother of stealing $3.6 billion worth of bitcoin, claimed in a new interview that much less than that is missing from investors’ wallets.

Raees Cajee, 21, and his 18-year-old brother Ameer are now in hiding because they’ve been receiving death threats, the elder Cajee told The Wall Street Journal.

The older brother also said that at the peak of the bitcoin rally earlier this year, his company, Africrypt, managed just over $200 million, a far cry from the $3.6 billion that a law firm hired by disgruntled investors says is missing.

“We dealt with a lot of high-level South Africans, a lot of politicians, a lot of high-level businessmen within South Africa, as well as celebrities,” Cajee told the Journal. “Some particularly very, very dangerous people — that we had not actually known were clients — have started to come out of the cracks.”

The two Cajee brothers founded their cryptocurrency investment platform in 2019. But in April, as the price of bitcoin surged to an all-time high, Africrypt told investors that the company had been hacked.

Frustrated investors hired lawyers, who investigated and said that about $3.6 billion worth of bitcoin had disappeared from Africrypt’s South African accounts.

But Raees Cajee told the Journal Monday from a location that he wouldn’t disclose that the firm’s portfolio never reached nearly that size.

He added that no more than $5 million is currently missing, according to the Journal.

Raees Cajee also said he and his brother plan to return to South Africa for a July 19 court date tied to the liquidation proceedings against Africrypt.

Africrpyt’s investors first became suspicious of the brother team in April, after the younger Cajee, who served as chief operating officer, announced that the company had been hacked and made the unusual request of asking clients not to report the incident to authorities or lawyers.

But a group of skeptical investors contacted Cape Town-based Hanekom Attorneys, “which focuses on all aspects of the cryptocurrency industry” and advises “large volume traders, exchanges and arbitrage companies.”

“We were immediately suspicious as the announcement implored investors not to take legal action,” the law firm said last week in a statement. “Africrypt employees lost access to the back-end platforms seven days before the alleged hack.”

Representatives for Hanekom did not immediately return The Post’s request for comment on Tuesday.

Ameer Cajee declined to comment.

“Unfortunately I cannot give any statements regarding Africrypt as I was only an employee of the company,” he told The Post by email. “My employment was terminated on the 25th of April 2021.”

His attorney, John Oosthuizen, did not return The Post’s request for comment.

South Africa’s Finance Sector Conduct Authority is also looking into the company, Hanekom Attorneys said last week, but the agency has said it can’t launch a formal investigation because bitcoin and other cryptos are not legally considered financial products.

Hanekom also said it has reported the incident to the Hawks, an elite unit of South Africa’s national police force. 

The alleged heist comes after another South African bitcoin trader, Mirror Trading International, collapsed last year. The losses included about $1.2 billion in cryptos, with some calling it the biggest cryptocurrency scam of 2020.

The two Cajee brothers were profiled in a December cover story by local outlet The Umhlanga Magazine. The story, which outlined the Cajees’ success in launching their own business, appears to have since been taken offline.

“The vision for Africrypt has always been to develop the first African cryptocurrency-focused bank, providing decentralised finance to the people who need it most, giving easy access to capital for young entrepreneurs, and stimulating growth and prosperity,” the brothers were quoted as saying in a joint interview.

“Our goal is to bridge the gap between cryptocurrency and fiat currency, making it a seamless transition between the two.”