Tech
Cryptocurrency entrepreneur accused of $150 million scam
Authorities said they arrested Jicha and unsealed an indictment containing four charges against him – securities fraud and conspiracy to commit securities fraud, wire fraud and money laundering – after he entered the United States to the first time in more than five years on December 23, headed to Miami for the holidays. He was arraigned Friday morning in federal court in Brooklyn.
Prosecutors allege the company falsely claimed on its website, in social media posts and at live events that investors could earn up to 140% returns on cryptocurrency investments made through its platform.
Around the spring of 2017, Jicha and his co-conspirators began “aggressively promoting” USI Tech, prosecutors said. There were live events, including one in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, where one of Jicha’s co-conspirators claimed that USI Tech’s legality had been blessed by “the best lawyer in the SEC,” according to the indictment.
In 2018, when regulators began looking into USI Tech, prosecutors said Jicha had disrupted the company’s operations in the United States, preventing investors from withdrawing their money. Since then, about $150 million of that money has been transferred to accounts controlled by Jicha, prosecutors said Friday.
“It is always difficult when investors have suffered losses at the hands of certain bad actors,” Marissel Descalzo and David Tarras, lawyers for Jicha, wrote in a note. “We look forward to zealously defending the charges against Mr. Jicha and bringing to light the facts of his involvement with USI Tech, in the hope that bad actors will be brought to justice.”
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