Mirror Trading International, the now-defunct fraudulent
bitcoin investment platform, is said to be owed more than $129 million
by debtors that had not been declared previously.
Unaccounted for Debtors
Liquidators of the collapsed South
African bitcoin Ponzi scheme, Mirror Trading International (MTI),
recently released a statement that suggested the scheme is owed as much
as $129.6 million (2.07 billion rands) by previously unaccounted for
debtors.
According to a report
by Moneyweb, preliminary investigations by liquidators also show that
MTI had assets valued at over $190 million. However, the report said
liquidators conceded they still needed to carry out more investigations.
These reports of fresh claims against
MTI follow the confirmation by liquidators that they had successfully
applied for the liquidation of JNX Online, a firm that is allegedly
controlled by Johann Steynberg, the scheme’s former CEO.
As explained in the report, Steynberg
and his wife, Nerina, had allegedly used JNX Online to buy and sell
bitcoins. The same company was also used to make payments to MTI’s
creditors and to Nerina.
Legal Action Option
The liquidators, according to the
report, believe that legal action — which enables them to investigate
fraudulent claims against MTI — might be required. Besides the mooted
legal action, the report said “crypto specialists” have since been
appointed to assist in quantifying and identifying claims that were
obtained from MTI’s back-office platform.
Before running into legal and regulatory troubles,
MTI projected itself as a legitimate bitcoin investment platform with
some 300,000+ investors. Yet as the findings of an investigation by
liquidators show, the number of investors is in fact well below that.
Meanwhile, the Moneyweb report said
liquidators will continue to investigate the circumstances leading to
the collapse of MTI “by way of Section 417 and 418 enquiries in terms of
the Companies Act.”
