BTC wallets of liquidated South African exchange iCE3 show $ 3.3 million gap: report

A South African digital bureau de change that went into liquidation earlier this year may have lost 54 BTC, worth $ 3.3 million, and several other smaller digital currencies. The iCE3 exchange went into liquidation in early April, engaging in a blame game with its tech provider as its customers remained in the dark.
As CoinGeek reported, the exchange blamed its Austrian technology provider Merkeleon for the gaps in its BTC and Litecoin wallets. It then suspended deposits and trading of all digital currencies on the platform, then deleted its Facebook and Twitter pages, causing panic among its users.
Now the interim liquidator has revealed that the exchange’s BTC wallet is short by 54 BTC. National Liquidators’ Dewald Breytenbach, who has confirmed he controls some of iCE3’s BTC wallets, said he found 22 BTC when he expected to find 76 according to exchange records.
The liquidators also saw discrepancies between other, smaller digital currencies. Speaking to local business news outlet Moneyweb, Breytenbach said: âIn some cases we have discovered more [smaller] cryptos than expected, and in other cases we discovered less of it, so it’s everywhere.
The liquidator told the outlet that he attributed the problems with the exchange to a dispute between founder Gareth Grobler and Merkeleon, his technology provider.
âICE3 and its founder Gareth Grobler assumed it was a partnership, while Merkeleon had a totally different understanding. Grobler says they developed the software on which the exchange ran, while Merkeleon took care of the administration, for which she billed iCE3 every month, âhe explained.
National Liquidators has been in contact with Merkeleon and hopes they will get more information on the missing digital currencies. The tech company is also expected to provide full accounting of all digital currencies under its administration.
Some of the iCE3 customers who lost their assets have taken legal action to continue the exchange. A user, who lost 2 million rand ($ 136,700), has gone to court to force the liquidator to pay him back through the digital currencies he has in his custody.
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