Horst Jicha discusses cryptocurrencies.
Source: Team Business Global | YouTube
A German national who was under house arrest in New York in a $5 million bond guaranteed by his domestic partner and his children to a case in which he was accused of overseeing $150 million cryptocurrency scam he is now a fugitive.
“There is a very active investigation underway for his arrest,” John Marzulli, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney in Brooklyn, said Friday, a day after the defendant, Horst Jitsa, failed to appear in Brooklyn federal court as scheduled.
“We will lose the bond,” Marzulli added, meaning prosecutors will seek to receive the portion of the $4 million personally guaranteed by Jicha’s partner, children and three other people, who live in Germany.
Another $1 million in cash to secure the bond had been deposited with the federal government.
Horst is suspected of tampering with his own ankle bracelet display On Oct. 3, a prosecutor from the U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn told a judge Thursday in a hearing that was supposed to consider pretrial issues in the case.
After noticing that Jicha’s ankle bracelet was not working, Pretrial Services officials sent him an email asking him to visit their office the next day. Tzitsa did not appear, the prosecutor told U.S. District Court Judge Orelia Merchant.
It was only then that Pretrial Services informed prosecutors that Jicha’s ankle bracelet had stopped working, 26 hours after becoming aware of this fact, the prosecutor told the judge.
Defense attorneys for Jicha did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
CNBC has reached out to Pretrial Services in Brooklyn federal court for comment.
U.S. Attorney Breon Peace gives a statement after a hearing in the courtroom of former U.S. Rep. George Santos on August 19, 2024 in West Islip, New York.
Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images
Tzitsa is scheduled to go to trial in the case on March 31, where he faces multiple charges securities fraud and conspiracy related to a multi-level marketing scheme known as USI Tech.
According to prosecutors, Jicha lied to private investors when he told them they would average 140% returns on their money over a 140-day period.
The investors said there were two ways they could make money: First, they could invest in what was supposed to be bitcoin mining and trading. They could also earn commissions for referring 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’ money 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 he was arrested in Florida in late 2023.
Jicha was released on bail in January and was living in Brooklyn.
Under the conditions of Jicha’s release, he was required to remain in New York or Long Island and not leave his home except for court appearances, attorney visits or medical appointments, unless authorized by Pretrial Services.
Jicha, 64, was also required to surrender all passports and travel documents as a condition of his release.
Court records show that Jicha’s $5 million bond was guaranteed and signed in January by his domestic partner Ewa Jicha, as well as Jicha’s adult His son and three daughters, both by the boyfriend of one of Jicha’s daughters and by the boyfriend’s brother and father, court records show.
All of those people were residents of the German state of Baden-Württemberg, according to court records.
But under the terms of the bond, they are also personally liable for the bond amount.
After Horst Jicha was released, Ewa Jicha acted as his third-party custodian and was required to report any parole violations to a US officer.
Tsitsa was arrested on December 23 in Miami after entering the United States for the first time in more than five years to vacation there.
Prosecutors allege that Jicha started USI Tech in Europe, where, as co-founder and CEO, he claimed the company would make “investing in cryptocurrencies easy and accessible to the average retail investor.”
“In reality, it was a multi-level marketing scheme that relied on investors recruiting other investors under them to buy various purported cryptocurrency investments,” the US attorney’s office said in January.
“In 2017, Jicha brought USI Tech to the United States and aggressively marketed it to US retailers on social media and through in-person presentations in which he assured falsely high returns on investments and made false claims about the legitimacy of the platform’s investment offerings. . ” the office said. There are several videos on YouTube showing Jicha promoting the company.
In early 2018, after USI Tech came under regulatory scrutiny in the US, it “ceased all operations in the US overnight, leaving investors unable to access their funds and resulting in millions of dollars in losses.”
Prosecutors said much of the money missing from the scam, “worth approximately $150 million as of the date of his arrest,” was kept in the form of ether and bitcoin cryptocurrency. After USI Tech ceased operations, this cryptocurrency was sent to digital deposit addresses controlled by Jicha.