WARNING: Bitcoin Wallets customers’ accounts hacked online
Have you lost money to Bitcoin Wallets? Download the affidavit here
Despite public reassurances Sgumza made during the week, it appears that suspected Ponzi scheme ‘Bitcoin Wallets’ has collapsed.
Sphelele (Sgumza) Mbatha admitted to the Ladysmith Gazette this afternoon (Saturday) that he doesn’t have any more cash to pay out to clients… He has no idea how the Bitcoin Wallets online platform works.
“I don’t know what’s going on. I don’t know online or how this system works. I have to be workshopped. The owner of the company is operating the online business. I was only the manager of the Ladysmith branch,” he explained.
“I won’t continue working. I don’t have cash anymore. The owner says people must go online and collect their money online. I, myself, have invested my money in there. I submitted my banking details online and now I am also waiting.”
The business website, which is up and running as promised, brags about more than R600 million in trading profits and daily pay-outs of more than R5 million. The site further claims to “provide the best seen results yet in bitcoin trading” and “offers … members a 100% growth in 15 working days.”
This is a claim that crypto-currency expert Shireen Ramjoo assertively debunked in an earlier print edition of the Ladysmith Gazette, in which she exposed grandiose promises as an unmistakable red flag of a typical Ponzi scheme.
From the Gazette’s brief telephonic interview with Sgumza, it seems evident that thousands of residents who still have funds invested in the scheme must accept that they have lost their money.
Sgumza provided the Ladysmith Gazette with the cell-phone numbers of the people he says own Bitcoin Wallets. Attempts to reach the owners proved fruitless, as the phones are switched off.
Siyabonga Maphalala, the communications officer of Alfred Duma Municipality, is the council’s delegated representative to look into Bitcoin Wallets. He was handed this task after the municipality received numerous complaints regarding crowds, public disturbance and traffic congestion, and was at the Bitcoin Wallets premises every day last week to engage with Sgumza and his clients.
Mr Maphalala offered to assist Sgumza, on behalf of the municipality, to find suitable alternative premises, on condition that Sgumza produce a comprehensive business plan that explains how his business generates returns for his clients, as well as the required registration documents for Bitcoin Wallets to operate as a legal entity.
This morning, Mr Maphalala said that he still had not received the documents.
“The business is still closed, but Sgumza told me he is busy with the business plan. Once we receive it, we will send all the paperwork to our Legal Department for verification. If everything is above board, our Local Economic Development (LED) Department will do everything in its power to assist him. However, we (the municipality) cannot condone or be associated with a business that is committing fraud or operating illegally. If we find evidence of this, our legal team will advise the council on how to proceed,” said Mr Maphalala. “I also don’t understand how he intends to pay everyone into their bank accounts when he doesn’t have any of his clients’ banking details.”
Sgumza said he had informed the owners of Bitcoin Wallets of Mr Maphalala’s offer to assist them to find new premises, but he is not sure if they are interested in relocating the offices now that they have decided to go online.
Asked how he can claim not to be the owner of the business himself, when he registered Bitcoin Wallets Achievers as a private company last week, listing himself as the sole director, Sgumza responded, “I did open a company last week. I was trying to open something for myself, but I have never used the company to conduct business anywhere.”
Yesterday, a scuffle broke out as clients became upset with Bitcoin Wallets staff for not allowing them access to the offices. The atmosphere was tense, as people milled around waiting for answers.
Also read: Municipality claims they did not chase Sgumza away
Also read: Suspected Ponzi scheme believed to have closed up shop
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