Raees Cajee, a co-founder of SA Bitcoin investment firm Africrypt, who is accused of absconding with Bitcoin worth R51bn, said he and his brother were forced to flee the country after receiving threats.

Cajee has filed papers to oppose the company’s liquidation, according to a report by MyBroadband.

In an answering affidavit, Cajee said reports and speculation that he and his brother fled the country with cryptocurrency worth billions were untrue.

‘We were forced to flee the country – with our immediate family, including my disabled father – after receiving numerous death threats,’ he said.

Cajee said they were still receiving threats.

A report on the IoL site notes that he added that ‘we have had our location tracked, our mobile numbers hacked, and my father was, also, at one stage kidnapped’.

Cajee’s affidavit bears the stamp of the South African High Commission in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, and is dated 19 July.

According to a police complaint by the law firm handling the case on behalf of investors, Hanekom Attorneys, Raees and Ameer Cajee, ‘absconded’ with Bitcoin that was at the time valued at $3.6bn.

Darren Hanekom is the attorney handling the case on behalf of investors.

Raees and his brother Ameer may still travel even if the SA authorities cancel their passports.

The Guardian has reported that they recently bought passports from the island of Vanuatu in the South Pacific. Business Insider reports that the passports can be secured for about R2m, and their holders can easily change their names, under permissive rules that seem all but designed for cash-rich people on the run.

Holders of Vanuatu passports can enter, without a visa, the EU, UK and more than 100 other countries.

Full report on the IoL site

Full Business Insider report