Mirror Trading International’s Johann Steynberg arrested in Brazil
Brazilian authorities have arrested Mirror Trading International CEO Johann Steynberg.
Steynberg was picked up Goiania on an international arrest warrant issued by Interpol.
As reported by UOL, quoting an local police officer, Brazilian authorities had been tracking Steynberg (right) for some time.
After an intense work of identification and follow-up, and with the help of information passed on by the Federal Police, it was possible to identify and approach the suspect, who presented a false document at the time of the approach.
Following his arrest on December 29th, Goiania police raided Steynberg’s local residence. “Two false documents, two laptops, a cell phone and six credit cards” were seized.
The “false documents” are believed to be identity papers, suggesting Steynberg was possibly in possession of three fake identities.
Following Mirror Trading International’s collapse in late 2020, Steynberg fled South Africa.
Steynberg’s wife, Nerina, would later confirm he was in Brazil.
Although Steynberg was presented as Mirror Trading International’s CEO, the Ponzi scheme is believed to have been run by Clynton and Cheri Marks.
To date South African authorities have taken no action against the Marks.
The FSCA announced they “might” fine Mirror Trading International last July. Since then there have been no updates from South Africa.
Frustrated investors have had to rely on civil liquidation proceedings to recover losses.
Total Mirror Trading International investor losses have been pegged at over half a billion dollars.
Clynton Marks is engaged in a legal battle to keep bitcoin stolen through Mirror Trading International.
Pending updates out of Brazil, and the off-chance South African authorities do anything, stay tuned…
Update 8th January 2022 – Local media are reporting Steynberg, married, was arrested at his Brazilian girlfriend’s residence.
Wondering if the Interpol notice was issued by the US or South Africa…
Betting it’s the DOJ… guy has fucked up… greatcoinnews.com/2021/08/04/fbi-joins-mirror-trading-liquidators-in-bid-to-recover-investors-assets/
Hopefully. If Steynberg is extradited back to South Africa he’ll just move into the Marks’ basement and nothing will happen.
If it is the US we’ll also get a juicy indictment.
Yeah FBI: mybroadband.co.za/news/cryptocurrency/429318-mirror-trading-international-ceo-johann-steynberg-arrested-reports.html
goias.gov.br/servico/17-politica-de-seguranca/126517-preso-em-goi%C3%A2nia-criminoso-procurado-pela-interpol.html
I think we are going to see a lot more of this in 2022/2023.
Yeah but who actually issued the Interpol notice đ
Useless as they are, wouldn’t SA’s Hawks or whatever get uppity if the US extradites one of their citizens from another country and then steamrolls them in court?
edit: Actually probably not. Sweden didn’t a crap when the US extradited Greenwood from Thailand.
If Steynberg is off to the US hopefully he strikes a plea deal that sees the Marks finally picked up and shipped off.
This was the best news to wake up to.
It will have been the US who chased the warrant. The South African authorities couldn’t chase their own tails
The guy would have been safer going underground at home and paying for security. Even if he was charged in SA, he could have delayed any trial for decades
Apart from Greenwood, the other illustration that occurs to me is the NatWest Three in the early Noughties.
Nobody gave a crap about the US rendering three UK subjects accused of fraud against a UK bank, until a masterful PR campaign refocused attention on the unequal extradition treaty between the UK and the US, and diverted everyone from the facts of the case.
In that case the scammers’ compatriots in the media and then politics did go in to bat for them, but only because it became a one-off political cause celebre. This is not going to happen to Greenwood or Steynberg.
Another counter-example: the Iranians arrested a random UK citizen on spying charges that everyone up to and including the Grand Ayatollah knows are total bollocks.
The response of the UK Government was to get her sentence increased thanks to our Prime Minister running his mouth off.
That’s the attitude we take to innocent people arrested by foreign governments. if she’d been a scammer defrauding Iranians and been caught bang to rights, what are the chances that her government would have lifted a finger to help her?
In general governments care just as much as other governments arresting and locking up their home-grown scammers as they care about their scamming in the first place, i.e. not a lot.
I think youâre referring to the Enron Three to give them their correct title.
I donât wish to appear pedantic Malthusian. However, itâs clear the British establishment has history of closing ranks around one of their own.
The case of a drug-smuggling Guards officer caught red-handed is yet another example.
They were universally known as the NatWest Three in the UK and Wikipedia uses that title (despite being a US publication).
I’m guessing they were called the Enron Three in the US due to NatWest (National Westminster Bank) being unknown there, so neither title is correct or incorrect.
I’m not familiar with the drug-smuggling Guard. (A quick Google brought up several cases of ex-Guards veterans being arrested and convicted by the British Establishment.)
In any case, dodgy bankers are not part of the British Establishment. They are private businesspeople. Likewise Steynberg is not part of the South African Establishment.
@Ăz
Any update on Johan regarding extradion??..
Johann has fallen into the extradition black hole, ala Sebastian Greenwood.
The only example of Brazilian MLM extradition we have is Carlos Wanzeler. He was stripped of citizenship and set to be extradited in Q3 2020. There have been no updates since.
Brazil seems to take an awful long time to extradite suspected criminals for some reason.
Thanks!!..
Update and list of charges in SA…
https://mybroadband.co.za/news/cryptocurrency/447822-ceo-of-south-africas-biggest-cryptocurrency-scam-faces-extradition-from-brazil-here-are-the-charges.html
Thanks. This one’s on my radar (2 emails!).
In the middle of a rabbit-hole review. Don’t want to lose my train of thought. Will tackle after.
CFTC on the case..
cointelegraph.com/news/cftc-brings-1-7b-fraud-case-involving-bitcoin-against-south-african-national