Jacobus Thomas van der Merwe, owner of the collapsed South African Ponzi scheme Finalmente Global, has returned 42 Bitcoin to liquidators. This occurred after an April 13, 2021 urgent application froze his assets. The Free State High Court in Bloemfontein issued the freeze order on April 20, requiring Van der Merwe to explain why he should not surrender the assets by April 28.
Liquidators have processed 3,979 claims from Finalmente Global creditors. These claims total R1,410,373,286, approximately $100 million USD. Another 3,000 claims remain unprocessed as of late April.
Van der Merwe claims 864 Bitcoin, currently valued at about $50 million, are "irrecoverable." He has not provided a clear explanation for their disappearance. He also alleges 700 Bitcoin in investor funds were moved into Mirror Trading International (MTI), another South African Ponzi scheme, without offering evidence.
The 42 Bitcoin Van der Merwe turned over were on a device. Liquidators immediately converted the Bitcoin to currency and transferred the amount to the estate's bank account. Transaction history on the device showed nearly 10 Bitcoin had been moved to it just one day before the scheduled meeting with Van der Merwe, almost a month after Finalmente Global was formally wound up.
Questioned on March 5, Van der Merwe stated he had two cold storage devices and had consolidated all Bitcoin onto one. Liquidators believed this statement was dishonest. He later claimed, for the first time, that Finalmente Global had paid out 500 Bitcoin to investors. This contradicted the large claims being filed by investors, none of whom indicated receiving substantial repayments.
Van der Merwe offered to provide a list of repaid investors, access to Finalmente Global's servers, and the second cold storage device to substantiate his claims. He met with liquidators again on March 9 but failed to provide the second cold storage device. Despite further requests to his attorney, the device has still not been delivered.
Van der Merwe also failed to provide access to Finalmente Global's server. He stated the original server records were destroyed by the hosting provider due to non-payment, but claimed he had a full backup. To retrieve this backup, liquidators traveled to Cape Town to meet Matthew Roelofse, Finalmente Global's server administrator.
On March 16, representatives from Icon Insolvency Practitioners met with Roelofse. He provided a laptop containing the server backup and mentioned another backup existed on an external hard drive. After discussion, liquidators secured the hard drive. Roelofse denied mentioning 25 Bitcoin purportedly held in "an international exchange," a detail Van der Merwe had previously brought up. Roelofse only stated it was possible more Bitcoin might be held on an international exchange.
Liquidators grew concerned that Van der Merwe controlled more Bitcoin than he admitted. They believed he was attempting to mislead them about his innocence and cooperation. Van der Merwe subsequently became unresponsive, dodging liquidators.
Interviews with former Finalmente Global employees revealed Van der Merwe used investor funds to buy two properties, costing $273,512 and $106,563 USD respectively. Investor funds were also used to upgrade and renovate the first property to his specifications. These purchases raised suspicions of money laundering. Investigations showed Van der Merwe had limited financial means before his involvement with Finalmente Global.
Liquidators suspect Van der Merwe used shell companies to divert funds from Finalmente Global into other entities. Their findings led to the April 20 freeze order. Icon Insolvency Practitioners are handling the liquidation. A communication to "all known creditors" on April 22 detailed these findings.
A May 31 update from the Finalmente Global liquidators reported the recovery of an additional R9,000,000 ZAR worth of Bitcoin through the assistance of SA Safety and Security. Interviews with witnesses are scheduled for June 7 and 8 to provide further insight into Finalmente Global's trade dealings and Bitcoin activities. Additional legal advice is being sought to advance the matter and recover more funds.