Owing to the use of off-the-shelf scam software, the internals of Mirror Trading International have been made public.
We know how much they company currently has on deposit, what they owe and who who has so far stolen what.
The MTI data leak has been published on a Tor network website by “anonymous_za”.
I’m not going into any further detail because, in light of MTI’s response, the source of the leak doesn’t matter (more on that later).
The software company Johann Steynberg bought MTI’s backoffice script from is Maxtra Technologies.
Maxtra Technologies markets itself as a “mobile app development company” from India. Mirror Trading International’s logo features on its website.
The provided leaked data is accurate up until September 14th, 2020.
I’ve included current USD amounts to represent what has been stolen in fiat but, as per bitcoin’s volatility, note these amounts are subject to change.
As per the data, Mirror Trading International affiliates have invested 22,984.038907 BTC (~$251.1 million).
Of funds invested a total of 16,503.804706 BTC has been withdrawn (~$180.3 million).
Based on returns provided to MTI affiliates in their backoffice and yet to be withdrawn commissions, 17,247.03597 BTC is owed (~$188.7 million)
The problem?
Mirror Trading International only has 7331.05472 BTC on deposit (~$80.2 million).
This is a deficit of 9915.98124 BTC. And considering MTI is a Ponzi scheme, that figure will continue to grow over time.
As of September 14th 160,000+ affiliate accounts have been created. 99,077 of these are from South Africa, 10,867 are from the US and 4923 are from Namibia.
MTI is not registered to offer securities in any of these countries.
Moving onto withdrawals, MTI’s top net-winners of September 14th are as follows:
- Ignatius Bell – 273 BTC (~$2.9 million)
- Ignatius Michael Bell (second account) – 183.58702 BTC (~$2 million)
- Clynton Marks (MTI admin) – 130.20470 BTC (~$1.4 million)
- Alice Potgieter – 110.46455 BTC (~$1.2 million)
- M Bell (third account) – 79.30734 BTC (~$867,979)
- George Beetge – 76.57953 BTC (~$838,124)
- Kathleen Meinking – 75.8 BTC (~$829,593)
- Nico van der Merwe – 58.22434 BTC (~$637,236)
- Sean Logan – 45.06488 BTC (~$493,212)
- Henriette Bell – 44.57892 BTC (~$488,464)
- Johannes Fourie – 42.18916 BTC (~$462,279)
- XG Int Ltd – 39.15 BTC (~$428,978)
- Crypto Analyzer (aka Gary Jeremiah Handley) – 38.19548 BTC (~$418,519)
- Morne Kapp – 38.09453 BTC (~$417,413)
- Mine Hendriksz – 35.70899 BTC (~$391,274)
Ignatius Bell, Clynton Marks and Alice Potgieter received additional funds through a “founders pool”.
MTI founders are also reported to get “better ROI” rates over regular affiliates.
According to analysis of leaked data;
Members have been noted to exploit the pyramid scheme by using multiple accounts and positions as well as transferring deposits between positions using the internal transfer (member-to-member) scheme in order to achieve better binary income.
The internal transfer scheme has been (ab)used by members and founders, to transfer funds between weaker and stronger legs of their pyramid just before bonus calculations occur.
Ignatius Bell and his related accounts are a perfect example of this.
Top recruiters (or at least MTI accounts with the largest downlines) are:
- Janire Pascual Dominguez – 910
- Eduardo Daniel Cardona Ramirez – 855
- Johann Steynberg (MTI’s owner) – 752
- Crypto Analyzer (YouTube shill) – 658
- Rabu Gary – 230
- Ron Singh – 188
- Madisson Romero – 175
- Sean Logan – 169
- Manuele Claudi – 154
- Joel Santiago – 137
Nowhere in the data is there any evidence of external revenue generation.
MTI initially claimed they were using a forex bot. When that blew up in their face the company announced it was using a crypto trading bot.
In response to the leak, Mirror Trading International has instructed affiliates “to not give any comments on the matter”.
The company claims it is “happy with our system and security.”
Of note is MTI does not challenge the accuracy of the leaked data. Considering affiliates are able to search and verify the information as it pertains to their own accounts, MTI didn’t have a choice.
To date regulatory warnings have been issued against Mirror Trading International in the US and South Africa.
No direct action has been taken against MTI founder Johann Steynberg or any of the company’s net-winners.