Former USI-Tech CEO Horst Jicha is on the run after allegedly stealing $180 million from investors
A former cryptocurrency executive is on the run after allegedly tampering with his ankle bracelet, according to New York prosecutors. Horst Jicha, the ex-CEO of USI-Tech, a crypto mining and trading company accused of defrauding investors out of $180 million, reportedly removed his monitoring device and fled. Pretrial Services notified authorities on October 4, around 12 hours after Jicha’s bracelet stopped transmitting.
Jicha, a German national, had been placed under home detention in New York on a $5 million bond, following his arrest in Miami in December 2023. He was initially detained for his role in a cryptocurrency scheme that left investors unable to retrieve their funds. USI-Tech, which was aggressively marketed in the US after its founding in 2017, promised investors daily returns of 1% on their investments, a claim prosecutors allege was fraudulent.
Jicha had been out of the US for five years, following cease-and-desist letters from regulators, and only returned in December for a vacation. His pretrial conditions required him to stay in home detention and surrender his German passport, complicating any potential escape attempts outside the country.
Authorities are now actively searching for Jicha. His trial was set for March 2025, where he faces charges of securities fraud and money laundering. Prosecutors claim that Jicha funneled over 1,774 Bitcoin and nearly 29,000 Ether, valued at over $180 million today, into a cryptocurrency exchange he controlled.
USI-Tech shut down operations in January 2018, attributing the closure to misleading comments made by investors about its products. Investors, however, have yet to recover their funds.
