Four of six directors quit Africa Bitcoin Corporation amid shareholder rift

Four of Africa Bitcoin Corporation's six directors, including chair Norma Sephuma and interim CEO Stafford Masie, have resigned after a shareholder group led by founder Warren Wheatley's investment firm, WGW Capital, moved to remove them. The clash follows the FSCA's 20-year debarment of Wheatley over alleged manipulation of Altvest shares on the Cape Town Stock Exchange, which he is appealing. The stakes reach beyond the boardroom: the company has about R500 million lent to more than 50 South African small businesses that banks overlook, funded mainly by pension-fund capital. How it rebuilds its board will test local governance safeguards..BizNews Reporter.Most of the board of Africa Bitcoin Corporation (ABC), formerly Altvest Capital, has resigned, weeks after its founder was debarred by the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA). Interim CEO Stafford Masie is among those leaving.In a SENS announcement on Monday, ABC said four directors had resigned from the board and its committees with effect from 9 October:Norma Sephuma, Independent Non-executive Chairperson and member of the Group’s Audit and Risk and Social and Ethics CommitteesStafford Masie, Executive Director and member of the Group’s Social and Ethics CommitteeMs Snowy Masakale, Independent Non-executive Director and member of the Group’s Audit and Risk and Remuneration and Nomination CommitteesMr GG Alcock, Independent Non-executive Director and member of the Group’s Social and Ethics and Remuneration and Nomination Committees.Sephuma and Masakale also stepped down as directors of the Altvest Credit Opportunities Fund.The resignations followed a supplementary demand from WGW Capital and other shareholders, who together hold about 71.8% of ABC’s ordinary shares. They asked for resolutions to remove the four directors to be added to an upcoming shareholders’ meeting. According to MyBroadband, WGW is the investment firm of former CEO and cofounder Warren Wheatley and the vehicle through which he holds his ABC stake, and Wheatley is its director and principal executive. The departing directors said “material differences” between the board and WGW could not be resolved.Because the four have already left, the removal resolutions fall away. WGW’s original demand to appoint two additional directors still stands. Robin Coode and financial director Jonathan Phillips are the only directors left, and they are working with the company’s advisers to rebuild the board and its committees.Masie has also resigned as interim CEO and Director of Bitcoin Strategy, with effect from 28 February 2027. He will help management through the handover to permanent leadership.How the rift openedThe dispute goes back to the FSCA’s 20-year debarment of Wheatley, his wife Tatum and an executive, Akshay Karan, for alleged market manipulation. The case relates to trading in Altvest shares on the Cape Town Stock Exchange in 2022.In an interview with BizNews’ Alec Hogg shortly after the ruling, Masie said the board had chosen to “draw a line between us and the accused.” It put the three on leave and stopped paying their legal fees. Masie said the company was “quarantined completely away” from their appeal. Hogg asked whether Wheatley’s controlling stake made the situation complicated. Masie said no: Wheatley had shown “complete respect for the board and for the board’s authority,” and a large shareholder “has an inherent interest in ensuring continuity.” He added: “The board is still the board.”Wheatley told BizNews a different story after he resigned as CEO in September. “I was surprised, I won’t lie, at the stance they took and the separation that happened,” he said, though he added that he understood the logic. Hogg said he had been surprised that Masie did not offer “a strong defence” of the executives.Wheatley told Hogg that the trades behind the sanction came to R301 in total across three transactions. He said they were made to document a pricing fault at the A-Trade brokerage, not to move the share price. Tatum, he said, bought 30 shares for R186 and was fined R3 million. He is appealing to the Financial Services Tribunal and has asked for the debarment to be suspended until the appeal is heard.Wheatley also told BizNews that the FSCA does not want him or Tatum to have “a beneficial interest in or control over” a financial institution. He said he would remove the two of them “from the control and ownership structures” by putting their shares in trust for their children. Within weeks, the shareholder group led by his investment firm has forced out four of ABC’s six directors.What’s at stakeMasie told BizNews that ABC lends to small businesses the banks ignore. It has about half a billion rand deployed across more than 50 businesses, funded mainly by pension-fund capital. He said the Bitcoin strategy, borrowing against Bitcoin at below 5% to lower the cost of capital, was “still in play,” though the company held only “five-point-something Bitcoin.” He also said a planned listing on London’s Aquis exchange had been paused.ABC says its executive management will keep running day-to-day operations. Investors will be watching who joins the board and how much influence Wheatley’s investment firm has over it..Aurelius Media is the owner of BizNews and is a shareholder of Africa Bitcoin Corporation (formerly Altvest).

Four of six directors quit Africa Bitcoin Corporation amid shareholder rift

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