A German national who was under house arrest in New York City on a day $5 million bond guaranteed by his life partner and kids in a case during which he was accused of overseeing a $150 million project Cryptocurrency scams is now a refugee.
“There is a very active investigation underway to catch him,” John Marzulli, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Brooklyn, said Friday, a day after defendant Horst Jicha failed to look in federal court in Brooklyn as scheduled.
“We will withhold the bail,” Marzulli added, meaning prosecutors will seek to acquire the $4 million portion of the bail held by Jicha's partner, his children and three other people, all in Germany live, was personally guaranteed.
Another million US dollars in money to secure the bond had been deposited with the federal government.
Horst is suspected of trying to govern him Ankle bracelet monitor On Oct. 3, a prosecutor from the U.S. Attorney's Office in Brooklyn told a judge Thursday at a hearing to resolve pretrial issues within the case.
After noticing that Jicha's ankle bracelet was not working, investigators sent him an email instructing him to go to their office the subsequent day. Jicha didn’t appear, the prosecutor told U.S. District Court Judge Orelia Merchant.
Only then did the investigative commission inform prosecutors that Jicha's ankle bracelet stopped working, 26 hours after learning of this fact, the prosecutor told the judge.
Jicha's defense attorneys didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.
CNBC has reached out to Brooklyn Federal Court Pretrial Services for comment.
Jicha is scheduled to go to trial within the case on March 31, where he’ll face multiple charges Securities fraud and conspiracy in reference to a multi-level marketing scheme called USI Tech.
According to prosecutors, Jicha lied to retail investors when he told them they’d earn a median return of 140% on their money inside 140 days.
Investors were told there have been two ways to become profitable: First, they may put money into alleged Bitcoin mining and trading businesses. They could also earn commissions for recommending others to buy USI Tech products, the indictment against Jicha says.
“In reality, the platform was just a front, and when questions arose, Jicha stole millions of his investors’ funds and fled the country,” FBI Assistant Director James Smith said in January.
As of Friday, Jicha's whereabouts were unknown. Court records show he had lived in Brazil and Spain before being arrested in Florida in late 2023.
Jicha was released on bail in January and was living in Brooklyn.
Under the terms of Jicha's release, he was required to stay in New York City or Long Island and never leave his home aside from court appearances, attorney visits or doctor's appointments unless authorized by pretrial services.
As a condition of his release, 64-year-old Jicha also needed to give up all passports and travel documents.
Court documents show that Jicha's $5 million release bond was guaranteed and signed in January by his partner, Ewa Jicha, in addition to Jicha's adults According to court documents, these are the son and his three daughters in addition to the boyfriend of certainly one of Jicha's daughters and the friend's brother and father.
According to court documents, all of those people were residents of the German state of Baden-Württemberg.
However, in keeping with the terms of the bond, also they are personally answerable for the quantity of the bond.
After Horst Jicha's release, Ewa Jicha acted as his third supervisor and was required to report any violations of his release to a US probation officer.
Jicha was arrested in Miami on December 23 after entering the United States for vacation for the primary time in greater than five years.
Prosecutors allege Jicha founded USI Tech in Europe, where as co-founder and CEO he claimed the corporate would “make cryptocurrency investing easy and accessible for the average retail investor.”
“In reality, this was a multi-stage marketing scheme that relied on investors recruiting other investors among them to purchase various purported cryptocurrency investments,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in January.
“In 2017, Jicha brought USI Tech to the United States and aggressively marketed it to U.S. retailers on social media and through in-person presentations in which he falsely guaranteed high returns on investment and made false claims about the legitimacy of the platform’s investment offerings.” the office said. There are several videos on YouTube showing Jicha hyping the corporate.
In early 2018, after USI Tech got here under regulatory scrutiny within the U.S., the corporate “suspended all U.S. operations overnight, leaving investors unable to access their money, resulting in millions of dollars in losses.”
Prosecutors said much of the missing money within the scam, “worth approximately $150 million at the time of his arrest,” was kept in the shape of money ether And Bitcoin Cryptocurrency. After USI Tech ceased operations, this cryptocurrency was sent to digital deposit addresses controlled by Jicha.
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