USI-Tech’s Ralf Gold found dead in Brazil
USI-Tech co-founder Ralf Gold has been found dead in Brazil.
As per a June 19th article from Radio Acesa spotted by the FaceBook group USI-Tech – Now What!?, Gold, 59, was “found dead inside the Clube do Tiro” on Wednesday.
“Clube de Tiro” is a shooting, hunting and fishing club in Cambota, Valenca.
Valenca is a municipality in Rio de Janeiro, a state along Brazil’s east coast.
A search of Gold’s rented car at the scene revealed
two 9mm and .380 caliber pistols, a 357 revolver, an intact 9mm pistol magazine, twenty-seven 9mm cases, six bank cards, R$860 in cash (~$157 USD), a luxury watch, cell phone and weapons papers.
Gold’s cause of death has not been made public. Radio Acesa reports the case has been forwarded to authorities for investigation.
USI-Tech was an MLM forex turned crypto Ponzi launched in 2016. The scam was co-founded by Gold and accomplices Horst Jicha and Joao Severino.
Jicha was arrested on USI-Tech related fraud charges in the US last December. Severino remains at large.
Cited as co-conspirators in Jicha’s indictment, it’s assumed both Gold and Severino have also been indicted under seal pending their arrest.
Gold is now obviously out of the picture. The whereabouts and status of Severino remain unknown.
The fourth ringleader in USI-Tech was top promoter Mike Keifer.
Keifer, a German national, is reported to have “unexpectedly” died last August.
US authorities allege USI-Tech defrauded consumers out of “approximately 1774 bitcoin”.
At the time of USI-Tech’s third and final collapse in January 2018, the haul came to roughly $26,8 million USD.
At the time of Jicha’s arrest in December 2023, the haul was worth $77.8 million.
How much in stolen USI-Tech investor funds Ralf Gold, Joao Severino and Mike Kiefer made off with is unclear.
How much will ultimately be recovered through Horst Jicha’s expected conviction remains to be seen.
Pending any further updates on Gold’s death in Brazil, we’ll keep you posted.
Karma.
Interesting turn of events. Can’t say I shed a tear though. I’m still out thousands.
A hat tip to the USI-TECH now what group that broke this news would have been nice…
Fair point. By the time I got around to it I had the article sent to me via email.
I’ll add a note in the article referencing the USI-Tech Now What group.
Yea by the time you got around to it we’d broken the story and told you about it hours earlier…
@okosh Well considering Oz isn’t a full time news source and he probably has a life.. I mean god forbid he just post up an article to inform other people. I get it you want credit but sheesh…
Appreciate the sentiment but this was my bad. I went back and checked the emails.
Not intentional and thankfully an easy fix. Also can confirm, no life. *sad journo noises*