USI-Tech co-founder Horst Jicha has been arrested in Florida.
Jicha was indicted under seal on August 23rd, 2023.
On December 21st, the DOJ filed a motion seeking limited unsealing of Jicha’s indictment.
The stated reason for the request was
for the limited purpose of disclosure to and by law enforcement personnel, including foreign authorities and the International Criminal Police Organization (“INTERPOL”), for use in locating or arresting the defendant.
On December 26th, the court ordered Jicha’s indictment be unsealed to the public. News of Jicha’s arrest in Florida broke a few hours ago.
As
reported by Local10
, Jicha (right)
was booked into the Broward County jail Friday on a U.S. Marshals hold and was no longer listed in local jail records as of Wednesday morning.
Jicha, a German national with ties to Brazil and Spain, appears to have been arrested within 24 hours of his indictment being initially unsealed for law enforcement.
Jicha’s indictment cites USI-Tech co-founders Ralf Gold (right) and Joao Severino as co-conspirators.
We can’t confirm for sure yet but Gold and Severino are assumed to have been indicted alongside Jicha.
Co-Conspirator 1 and Co-Conspirator 2, individuals whose identities are known to the Grand Jury, were executives of USI-Tech.
As at time of publication, both Gold and Severino remain at large.
USI-Tech
itself was an MLM Ponzi scheme launched in 2016. The original model used forex trading as a ruse.
That lasted about a year, prompting a
cryptocurrency reboot
in July 2017.
Following regulatory fraud warnings from
British Columbia
,
Texas
,
New Brunswick
,
Nova Scotia
and
Manitoba
, USI-Tech collapsed for a second time in December 2017.
This prompted a third reboot, this time built around a
“Tech Coin” ICO
. USI-Tech would
go on to completely collapse
a month later in January 2018.
In a January 22nd, 2018 marketing video, Jicha claimed “USI-Tech never did anything illegal in the United States”. Shortly thereafter, Jicha stopped communicating with USI-Tech victims and went into hiding.
Jicha’s indictment cites him as CEO of USI-Tech, a Ponzi scheme that defrauded consumers out of “approximately 1774 bitcoin” (worth ~$94 million at the time of Jicha’s indictment).
In addition to USI-Tech’s co-founders, an “an American USI-Tech distributor” is also cited in Jicha’s indictment.
Individual 1, an individual whose identity is known to the Grand Jury, was an American USI-tech distributor who made numerous in-person and online presentations promoting USI-Tech alongside defendant Horst Jicha.
Promotion of USI-Tech was headed up by Mike Kiefer.
In addition to being a German national, Kiefer also
reported died back in August
(I know that’s the same date the USI-Tech indictments were filed but I’m chalking that up to a coincidence for now).
Either way we can rule Kiefer out as the “American USI-Tech distributor” cited in Jicha’s indictment.
Notable US nationals who promoted USI-Tech include Dan
🤖 Quick Answer
Who is Horst Jicha and why was he arrested?Horst Jicha is co-founder of USI-Tech, arrested in Florida following an indictment sealed on August 23rd, 2023. The DOJ unsealed the indictment on December 26th, 2023, after seeking disclosure to law enforcement and international authorities including INTERPOL for locating the defendant. Jicha was booked into Broward County jail on a U.S. Marshals hold.
What was the legal process leading to Jicha's arrest?
Jicha was indicted under seal in August 2023. In December, the DOJ filed a motion requesting limited unsealing specifically for law enforcement disclosure, including foreign authorities and INTERPOL, to assist in locating or arresting the defendant. The court granted this motion on December 26th, subsequently making the indictment public
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