FSCA debars CEO of JSE-listed bitcoin treasury company

The chief executive of Africa Bitcoin Corporation, the JSE-listed company formerly known as Altvest Capital, has been debarred by the Financial Sector Conduct Authority and has resigned from the board.

Warren Wheatley, who founded the company and drove its pivot into what it bills as Africa’s first listed bitcoin treasury company, is one of three people named in FSCA decisions communicated to the board on 30 August. The others are chief investment officer Akshay Karan and Tatum Wheatley, who heads the company’s media and investor relations.

According to an investor statement issued after markets closed on Tuesday, the decisions include debarment orders restricting the three from providing or being involved in the provision of financial products or financial services, from acting as key persons of financial institutions and from providing services to financial institutions.

The regulator has not published the decisions and the company has not said what conduct led to them. The investor statement, issued via the JSE, said the decisions were communicated confidentially to the individuals concerned.

All three dispute the findings and intend to apply to the Financial Services Tribunal for reconsideration and suspension of the orders. No suspension has been granted, so the debarments are in force.