The two South African concessionaires were peculiarly imbued with the ideas of the Black Lives Matter movement: “Black lives, of course, matter.  But to live well, you need money, ”they thought, and pulled off a scam with cryptocurrencies for two billion dollars

– I see you disinterestedly love money.  What amount do you like?  Ostap asked sternly.

“Five thousand,” Balaganov answered quickly.

Cyber Cognitive Warfighter Training

“Then I’m out of my way with you.”  I need five hundred thousand.  And whenever possible at once, but not in parts.

– Can you still take parts?  – asked the vengeful Balaganov.

Ostap looked attentively at his interlocutor and quite seriously replied:

– I would take parts.  But I need it right now.

***

Investors of the South African cryptocurrency exchange Africrypt are trying to find its founders – two brothers.  Allegedly, crypto-businessmen stole more than two billion dollars worth of bitcoins from customers.

Cryptocurrency holders from South Africa may have lost a total of 69,000 bitcoins, worth $2.3 billion at current exchange rates.  This was preceded by the mysterious disappearance of two businessmen brothers – 17-year-old Amir and 20-year-old Rais Kaji, who founded one of the country’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges.

At the end of April 2021, when the price of bitcoin reached its peak, the eldest of the brothers, Africrypt COO Amir Kaji, told investors that the exchange had become a victim of a hacker hack.  However, he asked not to contact lawyers and the police, as this would allegedly complicate the return of the missing funds.

The least gullible Pinocchios nevertheless hired a law firm, which found out that all the bitcoins in the wallets of clients were withdrawn through large mixing pools in such a way that they could not be traced.  At the same time, a week before the alleged hacking, the employees of the exchange lost access to its systems.

This is probably one of the biggest crypto scams in history.  The incident was reported to the police and the national financial regulator.  However, whether an investigation will begin is unknown.  Formally, there is nothing to investigate, since according to the laws of South Africa, cryptocurrency is not considered a financial instrument.

At the moment, the OneCoin pyramid, launched in 2016 by Bulgarian citizen Ruja Ignatova, is considered the largest cryptocurrency fraud.  She convinced millions of investors around the world, but especially in China, to invest in a new cryptocurrency, which was supposed to become a competitor to Bitcoin.  The earnings of the swindler and her accomplices are estimated at between 4 and 15 billion dollars.  At the same time, Ignatova herself could not be found.

It is impossible not to recall the story of the Japanese crypto exchange Mt.Gox, which by 2014 accounted for about 70% of all Bitcoin transactions in the world.  In February, Mt.Gox stopped trading, took its website down, and filed for bankruptcy.  The company announced that 850,000 bitcoins belonging to customers “disappeared” and were likely stolen.  Even taking into account the fact that 200,000 digital coins were later tracked and returned, the remaining 650,000 at the rate of June 24, 2021 would be estimated at $21.6 billion. At the rate of 2014, the losses of Mt.Gox investors amounted to about half a billion dollars.