MTI’s Liquidators and SARS settle tax dispute
While South African authorities haven’t done much on the criminal side of things, last year SARS, the country’s tax regulator, informed MTI’s Liquidators it intended to bill them $34.46 million.
This amount, representing unpaid taxes by the $1.7 billion Ponzi scheme, was just shy of total recovery.
As of March 2023, the dispute between MTI’s Liquidators and SARS was expected to drag into 2024.
Now, the unexpected news that MTI’s Liquidators and SARS have reached a settlement.
As reported by News24 on May 10th;
The liquidators for bitcoin Ponzi scheme Mirror Trading International (MTI) say they have reached a R283-million settlement with the SA Revenue Service (SARS) after months of negotiations.
The original amount SARS sought was R580.4 million. News24 reports that amount climbed to R931 million at some point.
The adjusted settlement amount is a 52% reduction of the original R580.4 million claim (~$14.9 million USD).
While agreed upon between the parties, the settlement still needs to be approved in court.
That SARS would settle for less than what first was first wanted probably reveals that the pot of whatever is recovered is smaller than first thought.
That and a bit of “ask for a ridiculous amount and then settle on a (still ridiculous) reduced amount”.
The BTC has been liquidated but fees continue to eat into the pot. Meanwhile the Marks crime family are burning through most of the invested funds with no repurcussions.