German Tied to $150M Crypto Scam on the Lam in the US

Horst Jicha was placed under house arrest at his home in New York as he was looking to stand trial for a $150-million crypto scam. However, the man has gone missing, and is effectively on the lam, with law enforcement trying to locate him.

Man Behind $150M Crypto Scam Disappears

Jicha was due to appear in a court in Brooklyn to have his ankle monitor checked after monitoring officers at Pretrial Services noticed that the device was malfunctioning. He was previously released on a $5-million bail bond, paid by his family. The bond will now be forfeited.

Jicha is still only facing allegations, and he has not been found guilty of any crime, as he has yet to stand a full trial. However, the mountain of evidence against him is substantial. He was the boss of USI Tech, a company that promised to bring investors a 140% return on their investment in just as many days.

The company was operating in 2017 at a time when Bitcoin, a popular cryptocurrency, reached one of its first market watersheds. However, Jicha’s intentions were never to help investors recoup their investment with a tidy bonus on top.

Instead, he used the money to market to more people and raise more investment, failing to achieve the high returns that he had promised. Jicha left investors on the hook for as much as $150 million, never to repay their investment.

Jicha is Not Content to Let the Law Decide for Him

The Federal Bureau of Investigation quickly got involved and investigated the man over the allegations against him. When the federal authorities came sniffing, however, Jicha chose to leave the country, along with his investors’ money.

He was later arrested in Florida at the end of 2023 and has been put under house arrest in New York City. The court said that he was not to leave either the city or Long Island, enjoying some freedom to his house arrest arrangement.

However, Jicha has done just that as he is on the lam and nowhere to be found just yet. Pretrial Services may have bought Jicha precious time, as issues with ankle monitors ought to be flagged quickly, but the service only became aware that the person had gone missing after they failed to show up to have their device checked.