A $3.6 billion Bitcoin scam has occurred in South Africa, Bloomberg reported on the 24th.
Twin brothers who run a cryptocurrency (virtual currency) fund in South Africa disappeared with $3.6 billion worth of bitcoins invested by clients.
This is estimated to be the largest cryptocurrency scam in history, Bloomberg reported.
The twin brothers who ran a bitcoin fund company called Africrypt in South Africa recently disappeared with 69,000 coins.
Investors hit by lightning have hired lawyers to follow them, but have yet to catch a clue.
The abnormal signal was detected last April. Amir Kaji, the older of the twins and the chief operating officer of Apricrypt, informed investors that “Bitcoin had been hacked.” He urged them not to report it to the police and other authorities, saying it would only interfere with finding the bitcoin again.
However, some investors were suspicious of this and reported it to the police. Police investigations revealed that they collected money from investors and invested in bitcoins, and then moved all of the bitcoins they invested to somewhere else that investors could not track.
They founded the company in 2019, and during that time, they are said to have attracted more investors by giving them appropriate compensation, saying they are profits from their Bitcoin investment.
Recently, Bitcoin scams have been on the rise in South Africa. Last year, South African bitcoin investment firm Mirror Trading International stole 23,000 bitcoins (worth $1.2 billion) from customers. The damage was three times greater than that of last year.
In South Africa, not only this, but also large and small Bitcoin scams are common, Bloomberg reported.
