MBABANE – A South African cryptocurrency firm that drew investments from across the region, including Eswatini, has been placed under provisional liquidation following a dramatic chain of events involving death threats, frozen funds and a murder that shocked the legal fraternity.
NTC Global Trade was liquidated last week by the Pretoria High Court after business rescue practitioner Kurt Knoop resigned from the case. His resignation came just hours after his colleague and attorney Bouwer van Niekerk was gunned down inside the boardroom of their Johannesburg law office.
Van Niekerk had been involved in court proceedings linked to NTC’s financial dealings. He was shot at close range by unknown suspects who fled the scene in a white GWM vehicle. South African police are searching for four suspects believed to be behind the hit.
The liquidation was granted by Judge Sulet Potterill in a closed hearing. The ruling removes NTC from the voluntary business rescue process it entered in March. Interested parties have until 6 November to argue against the company being permanently shut down.
NTC, along with its affiliated platform Arbitrawallet, raised nearly R500 million from investors by issuing debentures and promising profits from cryptocurrency trading. Arbitrawallet had been marketed as an automated crypto bot system designed to take advantage of small price differences between trading platforms.
In May, the Financial Sector Conduct Authority in South Africa issued a warning to the public about both entities, stating they were operating without licences. By then, NTC had already drawn criticism from investors in Eswatini and elsewhere in Southern Africa who were unable to access their funds.
The National Director of Public Prosecutions in South Africa filed an application in March seeking a preservation order against R176 million held in 35 bank accounts tied to NTC director Edwin Thabo Letopa. The court dismissed the case, citing insufficient evidence to prove that the firm was operating a Ponzi scheme.
A group of 21 investors had also attempted to liquidate the company in December last year after their withdrawal requests were ignored. That application was dismissed first on urgency grounds and later again on the merits.
Despite Letopa insisting that NTC was solvent, banks froze more than R116 million across two company accounts. These amounts exceeded the total claims submitted by the original applicants seeking liquidation.
Court records from August reveal that Letopa obstructed the business rescue practitioner from accessing key documents and financial records. A Johannesburg High Court ruling later ordered him to cooperate fully with the rescue process.
Knoop resigned shortly after Van Niekerk’s death. Legal observers have noted that the court’s decision to hear the matter privately may be linked to safety concerns surrounding the assassination.
Although Van Niekerk and Letopa had initially worked together to oppose the state’s seizure of funds, their relationship appears to have broken down. Letopa later denied there was any conflict between them.
Some investors in Eswatini say they were introduced to NTC through informal WhatsApp groups promising guaranteed crypto returns. They now fear their money may be gone for good.
The FSCA has also warned about scammers posing as officials, contacting NTC victims with false offers to help recover lost funds in exchange for payment. These so-called cloning scams are targeting vulnerable investors across the region.
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