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Ameer Cajee and Raees Cajee made news around the world last week, although it was far from the good kind.

The brothers, who started Africrypt, a so-called cryptocurrency investment platform, stand accused of disappearing with billions of dollars worth of Bitcoin.

The company was founded in 2019, and the brothers bragged how it had grown from a one-man, one-bedroom operation to “one of Africa’s largest and most successful AI trading companies”.

In April, operations were halted, with a message sent out to investors that Africrypt had been hacked and funds were missing.

A local law firm involved in recovery efforts, Hanekom Attorneys, accuses the brothers of vanishing with 69 000 Bitcoin, worth well in excess of R50 billion at the time.

However, the brothers have now resurfaced – kind of – via a statement from a lawyer acting on their behalf.

John Oosthuizen told the BBC that the brothers “categorically denied” they had been involved in a “heist” or had absconded with funds:

“There is no foundation to the accusation and there’s no merit to those accusations…They maintain that it was a hack, and they were fleeced of these assets,” he added.

He declined to confirm the $3.6bn value for the Bitcoin lost, and noted media reports suggesting the value was an overestimate.

Asked by the BBC if the brothers had contacted the police after the alleged hack, Mr Oosthuizen said: “No.”

He then added that they’re only aged 18 and 20 (Raees turned 21 yesterday), and have “very little life experience”.

Pretty intriguing defence, that.

Oosthuizen went on to say that his firm was working on a dossier to show authorities that Africrypt had been hacked, and the brothers were the victims of theft, rather than having made off with the stash themselves.

Business Insider SA with more on some of the claims Africrypt made whilst in business:

The Cajee brothers built their business on some wildly improbable claims. They listed returns that would see some investors double their money every seven months.

They claimed to maintain those eye-popping returns with remarkable steadiness even as the price of bitcoin gyrated. They claimed they had created an artificial intelligence system that traded “without human intervention”, while they were manually handling such easily-automated tasks as client transactions and communication.

Family members say they have no idea where Ameer and Raees are at present, and the office in Rosebank, Jozi, listed in Africrypt’s communication with clients, sits empty:

Image: Bloomberg

A cousin, Zakira Laher, said the brothers enjoyed a “nice lifestyle” filled with luxury cars and travelling.

More from Moneyweb:

The brothers will have to reply to the proceedings at the Johannesburg High Court by July 19, he said.

Africrypt’s customer base spanned a variety of clients, from businesses and wealthy individuals to those who loaned money to keep up with their commitments.

“There were rich people, without a doubt,” [Attorney Gerhard] Botha said. “And people that invested their parents’ pension funds.”

Botha is working on the firm’s liquidation case, which is what that July 19 date relates to.

As it stands, South African authorities are yet to take action against the brothers.

[sources:bbc&businsidersa&moneyweb]