The liquidators plan to argue that they have been given insufficient time to prepare a response and will ask for a cost order against the investors. Picture: Masixole Feni/GroundUp UK creditors in collapsed bitcoin scam Mirror Trading International (MTI) are asking the Cape High Court to restrain the eight liquidators from incurring any further legal costs in the UK and to either remove them or place them under supervision. The case will be heard on Friday (12 December 2025) on an urgent basis.
In correspondence seen by Moneyweb, the liquidators say they will argue that they have been given insufficient time to prepare a response and will ask for a cost order against the investors. MTI was the world’s largest crypto scam in 2020 according to Chainalysis, roping in more than 29 000 bitcoin on promises of earning up to 10% a month from a trading bot that was found not to exist. It collapsed in late 2020 when investors’ demands for withdrawals went unanswered.
Founder and CEO Johann Steynberg fled to Brazil, where he was later arrested for using false ID documents. He reportedly died in April 2024 while awaiting extradition to SA. The UK creditors say the MTI liquidators have already blown half of the R1.1 billion in assets recovered and “each day that passes involves further expenditure of estate cash on overseas legal fees currently estimated at tens to hundreds of millions of rands over 12-18 months,” say the court filings.
Read Full Article on The Citizen
[paywall]
The creditors say the liquidators are issuing summons for recovery of bitcoin – at today’s prices, which are often eight or more times more than they cost back in 2020 – against thousands of MTI creditors around the world with the purpose of generating huge fees for themselves. The liquidators receive 10% for all recoveries, plus legal and other fees. The creditors argue it is in the liquidators’ self-interest to prolong litigation for years, even if the prospects of success are bleak, in the hope of earning more fees for themselves. The problem the courts will have to decide on is whether the liquidators’ claims have prescribed (run out of time).
[/paywall]
