South Africa’s financial regulator has confirmed that it has been notified by the Hawks of Steynberg’s arrest in the South American country.
Mirror Trading International (MTI) founder and CEO Johann Steynberg has been arrested in the city of Goiânia, the capital of the Brazilian state of Goiás, according to several Portuguese-language news reports.
Financial Sector Conduct Authority head of enforcement Brandon Topham said the Hawks have confirmed the arrest. The Goiás government announced the arrest in a media statement, although it only identified the suspect as the “founder of MTI”.
MTI was a bitcoin-based investment scheme that Chainalysis named the biggest cryptocurrency scam of 2020. It made headlines in September 2020 after a group calling itself Anonymous ZA exposed the inner workings of the scheme.
Steynberg went missing in December 2020, and the scheme collapsed. He was suspected of travelling in Brazil at the time. Court documents gave the last estimate of the funds that flowed through MTI as 29,421.03379 bitcoin — R19.7 billion at current exchange rates.
A source with knowledge of the case has subsequently told MyBroadband that more than 46,000 bitcoin (almost R31 billion) flowed through the scheme. According to the Goiás government, a specialist team of the Brazilian state’s Military Police called Giro made the arrest.
Source: moneyweb
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