MTI liquidators face 9,441 claims; estate at $35.8M

Liquidators overseeing the collapse of Mirror Trading International recorded 9,441 claims that together total about $395 million (roughly 6.5 billion rand). The estate held $35.8 million in cash and recoverable assets as of Feb. 18, 2026.

The estate’s available funds fell from $38.75 million in June 2024 to $35.8 million in February 2026. Financial filings list roughly $32 million spent on legal fees and international recovery work carried out in the United States, Canada, Europe, Singapore and Australia.

Mirror Trading International collapsed in December 2020 after chief executive Johann Steynberg disappeared while traveling in Brazil. Steynberg was arrested in 2021 on charges of using a false identity and is believed to have died in April 2024 while under house arrest awaiting extradition.

The largest single recovery came from a Belizean brokerage, FXChoice, which froze 1,281 bitcoins in June 2020 after flagging suspicious activity. The subsequent sale of those bitcoins generated about $57.2 million for the estate.

Other recoveries have been smaller. Liquidators recovered roughly $10.8 million through more than 690 settlements. One settlement produced $6.87 million; the remaining settlements averaged just over $5,700 each. Records show the liquidators claimed a $7.32 million fee in 2023 as part of their fees and expenses.

Earlier court filings in Singapore suggested about 304,044 creditors, but that figure reflected the total number of registered MTI users. Many registered users are class 3 participants who booked profits before the collapse and are treated as debtors rather than creditors.

The liquidators will review and verify the pending claims, remove fraudulent filings and exclude claims from users who already profited. Formal investigation and objection procedures for the pending claims are due to begin, and the reported totals and eventual distributions may change as claim validity is determined and remaining recovery actions are completed.