Authorities said they arrested Jicha and quashed a four-count indictment against him – securities fraud and conspiracy to commit securities fraud, wire fraud and money laundering – after he entered the United States on Dec. 23 for the first time in more than five years vacation to Miami. He was arraigned Friday morning in federal court in Brooklyn.
Prosecutors allege that the company falsely claimed on its website, social media posts and in-person events that investors could earn up to 140% returns on crypto investments through its platform.
Around spring 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 approved by the “top SEC lawyer,” the indictment says.
In 2018, as regulators began scrutinizing USI Tech, prosecutors alleged that Jicha shut down the company's U.S. operations, 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, Jicha’s lawyers, wrote in a statement. “We look forward to zealously defending the allegations against Mr. Jicha and bringing to light the facts of his involvement with USI Tech in the hope that the bad actors are brought to justice.”
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