The U.S. District Court docket for the Jap District of Novel York stands within the Brooklyn borough of Novel York Metropolis on Jan. 18, 2019.
Drew Angerer | Getty Photos
Federal prosecutors on Friday launched expenses against a German businessman, alleging he scammed traders out of more than $150 million in a crypto fraud map.
Prosecutors acknowledged Horst Jicha promoted USI Tech, the company he founded and helmed as its CEO, as a crypto mining and trading platform “accessible to the frequent retail investor.” But in actuality, Jicha and two unnamed co-conspirators, each USI Tech executives, lured and defrauded traders in a “multilevel advertising and marketing and marketing map,” prosecutors articulate.
Authorities acknowledged they arrested Jicha and unsealed an indictment containing four expenses against him — securities fraud and conspiracies to commit securities fraud, wire fraud and cash laundering — after he entered the U.S. for the predominant time in more than 5 years on Dec. 23, heading to Miami for mosey. He used to be arraigned in Brooklyn federal court Friday morning.
Prosecutors articulate that the company falsely claimed on its web page online, in social media posts and at in-particular person events that traders would possibly maybe maybe well moreover make as grand as 140% returns on crypto investments made thru its platform.
All the map thru the spring of 2017, Jicha and his co-conspirators began “aggressively promoting” USI Tech, prosecutors acknowledged. There had been live events, including one in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, the place one of Jicha’s co-conspirators claimed USI Tech’s legality had been blessed by “the very top SEC attorney,” in accordance with the indictment.
In 2018, as regulators began scrutinizing USI Tech, prosecutors alleged that Jicha terminated the company’s U.S. operations, combating traders from withdrawing their cash. Since then, around $150 million of that cash has been transferred to accounts controlled by Jicha, prosecutors acknowledged Friday.
“It be repeatedly hard when traders have faith suffered losses by the fingers of particular notorious actors,” Marissel Descalzo and David Tarras, Jicha’s attorneys, wrote in an announcement. “We look forward to zealously defending the allegations against Mr. Jicha and bringing forth the facts of his involvement with USI Tech in hopes that the notorious actors would maybe be introduced to justice.”
