The liquidators of the largest South African crypto-currency scheme Mirror Trading International demand that its organizers pay $291 million to investors.
The liquidators sent a summons to appear in court to eighteen citizens behind the now defunct Mirror Trading International (MTI) project. The offenders are required to pay $291 million to cover the losses of defrauded investors.
The decision to take the alleged organizers of MTI to court comes just months after liquidators failed to get a South African court to rule that the online bitcoin trading platform was illegal.
They were thwarted by lawyers representing MTI investors. Investors were concerned that if the court granted the liquidators’ claims, it would give them excessive powers and make it difficult to return funds to investors. Therefore, the judge postponed the hearing of the case to a later date.
The liquidators later petitioned the Pretoria High Court to hold MTI co-founders Johann Steynberg and Clinton Marks liable under the Companies Act because they were aware of their platform’s insolvency. Accordingly, they deliberately committed fraudulent actions against investors.
Mirror Trading International is considered one of the largest cryptocurrency scams in South Africa. South African regulators found out that the platform managed to attract more than 260,000 people and raise about 23,000 BTC. It collapsed after Steinberg disappeared with investor funds at the end of 2020. At the beginning of the year, he was arrested by Brazilian law enforcement.
