MTI Funds Pot Evaporating

Payback: Investors Are Being Asked To Pay Back Up To Six Times What They Withdrew

- Ciaran Ryan

While thousands of investors in Mirror Trading International (MTI) around the world are being pursued by liquidators for recovery of bitcoin they received from the failed scheme, information passed on to Moneyweb shows that the MTI estate had dwindled from R1.1 billion in 2021, to around R550 million by December last year.

MTI liquidators recovered 1,280 bitcoin in 2021 from a Belize-based broker called FX Choice, which was used by MTI founder Johann Steynberg for forex trading. This was sold in SA for about R1.1 billion.

This suggests that just half of the original fund remains, without any dividends being paid to creditors.

What is not known is how much was earned on interest on the original bitcoin funds recovered, nor how much additional bitcoin has been recovered—but these would have increased the value of the estate.

Billions unaccounted for Moneyweb directed questions to the liquidators and their UK solicitors Farrer & Co, but did not receive a reply.

We, however, know from a 2024 court filing by auditor Jan Dekker that R627 million was in the fund at the time.

An amount of R120.4 million in fees was paid to liquidators, according to the June 2023 liquidation and distribution account.