Dasset’s liquidators, David Ruscoe and Russell Moore, both of Grant Thornton, found more than $6m unaccounted for after the crypto firm’s director, chief executive and major shareholder Stephen Macaskill disappeared in August 2023.
After failing to locate the chief executive, who they believe to have skipped the country, Ruscoe and Moore referred unexplained withdrawals and subsequent trades on an offshore derivatives market to law enforcement authorities.
The Serious Fraud Office opened an investigation but it was closed on September 8 after the agency failed to find evidence.
In terms of money returned to customers or investors, Dasset sits between Cryptopia, where users have actually come out well ahead, and the total wipeout of Kim Dotcom’s Bitcache.
Cryptopia’s better returns
Ruscoe and Moore were also appointed liquidators for Cryptopia, the Christchurch-based crypto exchange that collapsed in May 2019.
In a January 2019 hack, $24m worth of cryptocurrency was stolen from Cryptopia, from a total asset base worth about $170m.
The financial losses were arguably survivable, on paper.
But amid a loss of customer confidence, and infighting between founders Adam Clark and Rob Dawson (the former compared it to Game of Thrones), the business collapsed soon afterwards.
This story has a much happier ending than Dasset.
Because a majority of Cryptopia’s assets were intact, and cryptocurrency appreciated sharply over the five years it took to untangle accounts that were “co-mingled behind the scenes”, Ruscoe and Moore reached a position where they could distribute close to half a billion dollars.
In their 15th six-monthly report, released on June 12 this year, the pair said, “To date, 16,850 qualifying account holders have received over $487m”.
Payouts to customers depended on what cryptocurrencies they held, but many saw gains in the region of 200 to 300%.
While substantial, the gains would have been bigger without $37.2m in liquidation costs (as of June 2026), including $9.2m spent on a claims portal, $6m in legal fees (including a landmark ruling that cryptocurrency can be considered “property”) and $10.1m in liquidators’ fees.
The payout process continues. Last week, one Cryptopia customer told the Herald he had yet to receive his payout but that the process was in train.
Liquidators had asked him to provide digital wallet details. He was relieved to have come out ahead but also frustrated that he had had to wait close to six years for his payout.
Bitcache hits brick wall
The situation is not so sunny for Bitcache, the crypto venture set up by Kim Dotcom in 2016 after a $5m crowdfunding raise, which was delayed for “top secret” reasons just minutes before its January 2017 launch.
Beyond the crowdfunding, other investors backed Bitcache, including self-styled “Bitcoin Jesus” Roger Ver.
Ver told the Herald he invested $6.8m in Bitcache and an associated Dotcom business before the two fell out (as recently chronicled by the Herald’s David Fisher).
The first liquidator’s report said Ver had a 12.5% stake in Bitcache. Other shareholders are based in the Cook Islands, the Cayman Islands and Hong Kong.
Bitcache stopped trading around March 2021.
In February 2024, lawyer Phil Creagh – a director of Bitcache until 2020 – successfully applied to the High Court to have Bitcache placed in liquidation. Creagh told the Herald he was owed $231,653 in unpaid director’s fees.
Iain Nellies of Insolvency Management was appointed liquidator.
Unsecured creditors, including Creagh’s law firm, and a wealth protection firm with a Cook Islands address, were owed $1.2m.
Nellies’ latest report, dated July 22, 2026, lists just $1659 realised (all from a patent fee refund).
He lists $13,894.03 in liquidation costs to date, including $1659.53 over the period of his latest six-month report, with the biggest ticket items outside newspaper ads being $115 in courier costs and $95 for photocopying.
Nellies appears to have hit a brick wall.
“A review of the company records is continuing. Issues that the liquidator is currently investigating include the trading of the company during the life of the company and various matters that have arisen during the course of the period leading up to the liquidation including who was actually in control of the company,” he writes in his latest report.
“Matters have continually been put to the person who appears to be the de facto director,” Nellies wrote.
Mark Hubble was the sole remaining Bitcache director but advised Nellies he had resigned before the liquidation.
“However, no responses have been received. Given the situation, it would appear there is nothing further the liquidator can do on this liquidation without funding from a creditor.”
Chris Keall is an Auckland-based member of the Herald’s business team. He joined the Herald in 2018 and is the technology editor and a senior business writer.
