They promised 13% a month from "Artificial Intelligence" — then simply vanished with the millions (Africrypt)

Two brothers from South Africa offered investors a monthly return of 13% thanks to a supposedly revolutionary artificial-intelligence trading algorithm. When the time came to account for the results, they chose the simplest way out — to disappear without a trace. Five years on, the story still has neither a final loss figure nor a court verdict.

Africrypt operated in South Africa and built its appeal on a combination of two powerful trust triggers: the promise of extraordinarily high and steady returns, and a fashionable narrative about "artificial-intelligence trading". The platform spread largely through word of mouth and recommendations within local communities, which lent it weight in the eyes of new depositors — the money was supposedly brought in by "trusted acquaintances" rather than anonymous advertising.

In April 2021, brothers Raees and Ameer Cajee informed investors that the company's wallets had been hacked, and shortly afterwards they disappeared. Initial loss estimates reached a staggering $3.6 billion, but subsequent scrutiny significantly reduced that figure — according to various sources, the real losses are estimated at somewhere between $12 million and $50 million. The exact scale of Africrypt's losses remains a matter of dispute to this day.

The brothers stayed on the run for years, moving between countries — including Tanzania, the UAE and Switzerland, where in 2021 Ameer Cajee was detained while attempting to access bank safe-deposit boxes containing hardware crypto wallets; he was later released on bail. According to journalistic investigations from 2025–2026, the brothers quietly returned to South Africa and settled in the gated Zimbali Estate complex in the KwaZulu-Natal province.

No criminal conviction has ever been handed down in the Africrypt case. A lawyer for one of the investors, who claims to have lost around $50 million, reports that the court papers have still not even been successfully served on the brothers — meaning the legal process has essentially not yet begun, and no funds have been returned to investors.

Published 15 May 2021