{"id":7108,"date":"2021-08-04T12:15:25","date_gmt":"2021-08-04T11:15:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/?p=7108"},"modified":"2021-08-04T12:15:36","modified_gmt":"2021-08-04T11:15:36","slug":"fbi-joins-probe-into-south-african-mirror-trading-international","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/fbi-joins-probe-into-south-african-mirror-trading-international\/","title":{"rendered":"FBI joins probe into South African Mirror Trading International"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is joining the investigation of South African company<\/a> Mirror Trading International which was involved in one of the largest alleged crypto scams of 2020.<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
\"FBI<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation is now investigating the South African company Mirror Trading International (MTI), widely regarded as last year's most heinous Bitcoin (BTC) Ponzi scheme\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n <\/g>\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n <\/clipPath>\r\n <\/defs><\/svg><\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MTI claimed to have over 260,000 members in 170 countries at its peak, before going into provisional liquidation in December 2020. It first came to the notice of regulators in Texas in July of last year, when its operations were immediately shut down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In August 2020, the Financial Services Conduct Authority (FSCA) of South Africa made its own statement, saying that the company lacked a mandatory license and was promising investors impossible, fanciful profits. Existing MTI clients were instructed by the FSCA to obtain immediate refunds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The liquidation team in South Africa has been working to trace MTI's assets since the scheme's collapse<\/a>, with the company thought to have held roughly 23,000 BTC worth around $874 million at today's price. Since January, the team has been looking for new powers to boost their efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Five MTI trustees said in an email to Bloomberg that they had now “met with international law enforcement agencies like the Federal Bureau of Investigation, after being approached by them,” revealing that “the FBI is joining forces with the liquidators of Mirror Trading International in the interest of several U.S. and local investors.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As previously reported, claimed internal MTI communication has been leaked, implying that the company's senior officials were unaware of the scheme's operations, with MTI CEO Johann Steynberg being the lone person with full control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAlthough there is a paper trail (aeroplane ticket) detailing [Steynberg's] likely flight attempt to Brazil,\u201d the liquidators wrote to Bloomberg, \u201cno video or visual evidence<\/a> could be acquired that he actually depart the country.\u201d Steynberg has been missing since December 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of the victims of a huge alleged crypto theft in South Africa this spring, linked to the Africrypt investment scheme, had previously wired their monies to MTI, according to a senior official at the South African crypto exchange Luno.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is joining the investigation of South African company Mirror Trading International which was involved in one of the largest alleged crypto scams of 2020. The US Federal Bureau of Investigation is now investigating the South African company Mirror Trading International (MTI), widely regarded as last year’s most heinous Bitcoin […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":7109,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,21],"tags":[1945,1943,1944,938],"class_list":["post-7108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cryptocurrencies","category-news","tag-crypto-scam","tag-fbi","tag-mirror-trading-international","tag-south-africa"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/FBI-joins-probe-into-South-African-Mirror-Trading-International.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}