Comedy of errors in catching international fugitive Johann Steynberg

This is the second article in a special Moneyweb series on Mirror Trading International (MTI) CEO Johann Steynberg.

When Steynberg was reported to have died of a pulmonary embolism in Brazil in April, after fleeing to São Paulo in December 2020, there were rumours that the head of one of the world’s biggest cryptocurrency scams had faked his own death. 

Now, using Brazilian court records and following a visit to Brazil, Stephen Timm attempts to piece together what really happened to Steynberg in Brazil.

When MTI CEO Johann Steynberg was arrested in Goiânia, a city in Brazil’s interior, in December 2021, it was the first news anyone in South Africa – or elsewhere – had received of Steynberg (at least officially).

Yet a number of questions surrounding the arrest of Steynberg, who was reported by Brazilian media in April 2024 to have died of a pulmonary embolism while under house arrest in Goiânia, Goiás, remain largely unanswered.

How had he come to be arrested only five days after arriving in the city on a flight from São Paulo with his girlfriend Karine Amelya de Andrade dos Santos Paniagua?

Had police been tracking him, or had someone reported him to the authorities, perhaps a disgruntled Brazilian investor? Or was it someone in South Africa – an MTI investor or family member, perhaps – who tipped them off?

One thing that is certain is the many inconsistencies in the account of his arrest given by the Goiás military police, and the accounts provided by those who were in the car with Steynberg when he was arrested.

ALSO READ: MTI kingpin Johann Steynberg: Dead or alive?

These inconsistencies suggest that something was amiss when he was brought in.

The area where Steynberg was arrested on 29 December 2021 – on Avenida 1 in the suburb of Alto da Glória, Goiânia. Image: Stephen Timm/Moneyweb

The police initially reported that he was arrested for being in possession of two fake IDs and that the police’s crime intelligence had been onto him because he was wanted by Interpol.

But having obtained the Brazilian court records pertaining to Steynberg, Moneyweb can now reveal that testimony by Karine and her brother Luciano, as well as evidence provided by Steynberg’s defence at the time, disputes this version of his arrest.

ALSO READ: MTI kingpin Johann Steynberg reportedly died in Brazil

Official version of events

The day Steynberg was apprehended, 29 December 2021, Luciano, then 49 years old, was at the wheel of a silver Vectra Chevrolet (similar to an Opel Astra). At his side sat Steynberg, 38 at the time.

It was almost natural that, given his 1.9m stature, Steynberg would be given the front seat. In the back was Karine, then 44, and seated alongside her was Steynberg’s personal trainer, Rafael Topolosky, then 28.

It was already late afternoon or early evening when the four embarked on the four-minute drive from the home of Karine’s parents in the nearby Vila São João, a working-class neighbourhood, to Costa Atacadão, a massive wholesaler warehouse, to pick up Karine’s sister, her cousin and their respective boyfriends.

They were alongside Costa Atacadão and were likely about to turn into the wholesaler’s parking area when an unmarked vehicle pulled up. Seated inside the unmarked car were Sergeant Sebastião Eduardo Reis Nunes and Constable Wisley Liberal Campos, both from the military police.

The two subsequently told the federal police that they had been patrolling the city, in the company of a Corporal Cesar and a Constable Cardoso (it seems the latter were in a different car), when they received news of a possible fugitive from justice who could be using false documents.

One of the officers said they had received a report from crime intelligence to be on the lookout for a suspect fitting Steynberg’s description and that he was wanted by Interpol.

It was then, they said, they came across an individual with a similar profile, seated in the silver Vectra.

According to their testimony, when they approached the vehicle Steynberg introduced himself as “Cleisson Vieira da Silveira” and presented them with his ID. But when the police officers ran a search on him, his face did not match that of the Cleisson who appeared on the system.

The real Cleisson Viera da Silveira turned out to be a 38-year-old man with a goatee beard from Guarulhos, São Paulo.

Police claim Steynberg confessed to police that he had a fake identity document. He was then arrested.

The officers, accompanied by seven uniformed military police officers who had since arrived on the scene, then escorted him to the home of Karine’s parents.

When Moneyweb visited the scene in October, almost three years later, the only thing visible from behind a 3m-high white wall and garage door, was an orange tiled roof. A small swimming pool, visible on Google Earth, lay hidden behind the wall. It looks like a modest property.

Once inside the home, police were able to find Steynberg’s passport, and when they carried out an internet search on him they discovered numerous news articles related to Steynberg’s involvement with MTI, which was subsequently found to be a Ponzi scheme in a ruling by the Western Cape High Court in April last year.

ALSO READ: Bitcoin scam MTI’s Johann Steynberg uses Ronnie Biggs defence to fight Brazil extradition

Police said they later also found an ID document for an “Edson Perreira de Almeida”.

The real Edson Perreira de Almeida, according to investigators, is a 39-year-old Brazilian from the town of Suzano in São Paulo state.

The sergeant said he then contacted the federal police and was told to bring Steynberg in as an international fugitive and illegal immigrant. Just before or after booking him at 9:30pm, police took a photo (later issued to media) of Steynberg outside the federal police station in Goiânia.

In the photo, his back is to the camera and his hands are crossed behind his back, while a police officer wearing a black balaclava is holding one of his arms.

Under interrogation, Steynberg told police that he had planned to move permanently to Goiânia. He then chose to say no more, as was his right.

Along with the fake IDs, police seized several items from Steynberg that evening, including a cream iPhone 12 Pro Max and two grey MacBook Pro laptops.

ALSO READ: FSCA agrees to waive R50m admin penalty on MTI

Other versions of events

The police’s version of Steynberg’s arrest is disputed by testimony given by Karine and her brother Luciano.

This testimony was provided by Steynberg’s defence during 2022, when his appeal of his conviction for possession of a fake identity document was being heard by a Goiânia court (which ruled in favour of Steynberg in June 2023, arguing that police had carried out an illegal search on the home of Karine’s parents).

In the version offered by Luciano, their car was approached by an unmarked car and men carrying weapons.

Soon after that, a military police vehicle arrived, and everyone was asked to identify themselves.

However, contrary to what police had reported to investigators, Luciano claimed that Karine and Steynberg were not carrying any ID documents at the time and the police told the couple they would have to fetch their ID documents (from Karine’s parent’s home).

Luciano said Steynberg was taken in a white car, while the others went in the Vectra. Karine’s teenage daughter was at home with her grandparents when the police arrived. It was she who opened when her mother knocked on the door.

ALSO READ: MTI Bitcoin scam kingpin now being hunted by the FBI

Interpol or FSCA behind arrest?

In addition, police claimed they had received word from crime intelligence that Steynberg was wanted by Interpol, but Steynberg’s defence argued that the evidence contradicted this.

His lawyers, then Cainã Camargo Jacundá and Vinícius Valadão Gomes, argued that while Steynberg was arrested on 29 December 2021, an application for his warrant of arrest for fraud and theft was only made on 3 January 2022 – in the Stellenbosch Magistrates Court, by Johannes Gerhardus van Deventer, head of enforcement of the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA).

An Interpol notification subsequently appeared, but only on 17 January 2022 – almost three weeks after Steynberg’s arrest.

Furthermore, his lawyers contended in court papers that the Interpol notice did not constitute a Red Notice, but rather a request for a Red Notice to be actioned in his name.

What was going on here? Had the police bungled his arrest? And why had it taken so long for the South African authorities to raise the issue with Interpol?

Screenshot of Steynberg’s Red Notice. Source: Interpol

Those weren’t the only questions around Steynberg’s arrest left hanging.

Had someone been working with the police to arrest him? Did the South African authorities play any role in his arrest, or had it come about simply as a result of a tip-off by a disgruntled local investor? After all, Steynberg admitted to Brazilian police that he had worked as a bitcoin broker while in São Paulo.

ALSO READ: MTI bitcoin scam’s Steynberg provisionally sequestrated

The personal trainer

His personal trainer Topolosky claimed that about nine people invested with Steynberg. Topolosky was one of these, having told investigators that he had given R$80 000 (about R230 000 at the time) to Steynberg to invest in bitcoin and that his father and aunt had even taken out a bank loan to invest a further R$80 000 with Steynberg.

His father was quite affected by the money he’d lost, according to Topolosky.

Added to this, in the inquiry run by the federal police following his arrest, Karine admitted that she had come under a lot of pressure from Topolosky and other people in his circle of friends who had business dealings with Steynberg.

She also claimed Topolosky had been acting very strangely following Steynberg’s arrest.

She recalled how, shortly after his arrest, a nervous-looking Topolosky (who had also been staying at her parent’s house) entered the room where Steynberg had his things.

He then began searching through the belongings, collecting papers belonging to Steynberg and any other objects he believed to be of interest, such as some papers with notes and medicines in the refrigerator for his own use, as well as some of Steynberg’s bank cards.

Topolosky flew back to São Paulo but returned to Goiânia on 23 January 2022 to visit Steynberg in prison – with two lawyers in tow.

ALSO READ: MTI Bitcoin ‘trading’ scheme leads to wine, antidepressants and tears

Karine said she had found this strange, because she herself had not been able to visit Steynberg. She said while Topolosky was visiting the city, he had threatened to kill her and her family, that he would stop by her house, and that he would “shoot everyone”. Despite this, she did not report the death threats to the police.

When asked about this by police, Topolosky claimed that on the day he intended to return to Goiânia with his lawyers, Karine and her family had begun to treat him strangely, which resulted in the disagreement between them.

He said he was not behind those who had been pressuring Karine for their money back, claiming it was all just a big misunderstanding.

But Topolosky did tell police that at the time of Steynberg’s arrest he had been waiting for Steynberg to pay out R$14 000 in profits from money he had invested with him, as well as the initial capital he invested.

He also told the police that after the arrest, he asked Steynberg if he had any funds left in his cryptocurrency wallets, saying that Steynberg claimed that the wallets were empty and that even if they weren’t, without his phone and laptops, which had been seized by the police, he couldn’t access his wallets anyway.

ALSO READ: Mirror Trading International liquidators claim R4,6 billion from 18 masterminds

Moneyweb attempted to contact Topolosky using the email and phone number listed in the criminal investigation, but without success.

Moneyweb also sent a WhatsApp message to Topolosky’s father, Francisco, which showed as being received – but he did not respond, nor did he react to phone calls made to the same number.

Was this MTI all over again, just the Latin American version?

If Topolosky wasn’t behind Steynberg’s arrest, who was? And why had the South African officials waited more than a year after Steynberg fled the country to issue a request to Interpol for a Red Notice – and only after he was arrested?

Ultimately, Steynberg’s arrest seems like a comedy of errors – and makes the efforts of Brazilian and South African officials look like the work of amateurs.

This article was republished from Moneyweb. Read the original here.