It looks like justice is finally catching up with another major alleged crypto scammer, this time in South Africa. 

According to News24, Willie Breedt, who is accused of stealing up to $16.3 million USD from approximately 2,000 investors through his VaultAge Solutions scam has been forced to declare bankruptcy by a court in South Africa. 

Promised returns never materialised

Breedt founded VaultAge Solutions (VS) in 2018, and began seeking investors with the promise of weekly returns on their deposits. According to VaultAge, the company would use crypto mining and trading to deliver the returns to investors, and accepted deposits from $50 upwards. 

However, investors claim to have only received around 1% of the promised gains, and one of the company’s biggest investors, Simon Dix, who handed over 7.5 million South African rand (approx. $440,000 USD), initiated legal proceedings against Breedt, applying for a sequestration order against Breedt. The order was subsequently granted by the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria.

On the run from debt collectors, an angry colonel, and the Hawks

Reports suggest that, in the weeks prior to his arrest, Breedt had emptied his bank account of $3.15M and gone into hiding from debt collectors who had been hired by a group of disgruntled investors led by a colonel in the South African National Defence Force. 

Though Breedt was initially suspected of having fled to neighbouring Mozambique, he was eventually tracked down to a guest house in the Silver Lake Estates, Pretoria. 

Although the guesthouse was raided by South Africa’s Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, known as “the Hawks”, and a laptop and a Ledger Nano crypto hardwallet were confiscated, it seems Breedt was not arrested. 

The South African Reserve Bank is also said to have assigned PwC to investigate VaultAge and any agents that may have handled its transactions. 

AYO.NEWS says:

No doubt investors will be hoping their missing funds are still stored on the hardwallet, but we very much doubt it – Breedt was obviously fully aware he was going to be raided at some point. Given the state of corruption in the country and the incredible ineffectiveness of much of the South African police force, perhaps the most surprising thing is that Breedt was even raided… unless, nah, I won’t be that cynical. 

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