Business

Johann Steynberg’s ‘simple’ life in Brazil

This is the third 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.

For the over 15 300 investors who together lost millions, if not billions, of rands when Mirror Trading International (MTI) imploded in late 2020, a key question remains – how much did the scam’s kingpin Johann Steynberg make off with when he fled to Brazil?

Steynberg was reported to have died in Goiânia, Brazil in April of a pulmonary embolism. While media reports following his disappearance after a flight to São Paulo in December 2020 suggested he may have made off with over 22 000 bitcoin, more recent figures suggest the figure was no higher than 6 900 bitcoin, the amount that liquidators subsequently said was missing when all withdrawals had been accounted for.

While some of the missing bitcoin could be with the scheme’s over 18 000 early investors who made money through MTI, liquidators also suggested in court documents last year that Steynberg had received more than 28 bitcoin after MTI’s liquidation in June 2021.

ALSO READ: This is what the MTI liquidators have found so far

How much of the missing 6 900 bitcoin then ended up in Steynberg’s pocket?

It’s difficult to know.

Those questioned by Brazilian police following his arrest offer conflicting descriptions of Steynberg – with some even describing him as a man of modest means.

Take for example his personal trainer and friend Rafael Topolosky, who was 27 when he met the then 37-year-old Steynberg through a mutual friend in December 2020.

While the two had often gone out partying together, Topolosky told federal police in the subsequent inquiry held following Steynberg’s arrest in December 2021 that the South African was, it seemed, someone with little money; someone who needed the help of others, even a pão duro (a stickler) when it came to money. Topolosky said Steynberg once even boasted to him about fake sneakers he’d got for next to nothing.

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

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Steynberg’s first Brazilian girlfriend

Then there was Steynberg’s first Brazilian girlfriend, Adriele Cristiana Rodrigues Alencar, then 28 years old and the owner of online clothing store Closet Alencar. The two met in December 2020 in a São Paulo hotel he was staying in at the time.

Alencar described Steynberg as someone who dressed modestly and never boasted about material possessions.

On the other hand, she also revealed to police how Steynberg regularly paid for her bills, lavished her with gifts, and covered any other expenses she may have had. He also gave her jewellery, designer handbags and at one stage even paid for plastic surgery.

A statement produced as evidence by Brazilian investigators for an account he opened at Club Swan, a digital payments platform, revealed that he spent over $52 000 (R775 000 at the time) at a Luis Vuitton store on 11 January 2021, during the time the two were dating.

The Club Swan account was opened in the name of “Cleisson Vieira Da Silveira”, with the address listed as apartment 705 at the Georgia V Casa Branca hotel, a high-end hotel in the upper-class area of Jardins.

On 15 January 2021, among various payments recorded on his Club Swan account, was one of a $10 513.53 payment to the hotel. This seems to be where he stayed when he first arrived in Brazil.

ALSO READ: MTI was 2020’s biggest investment scam, crypto crime report reveals

A visit in October by Moneyweb to suite 805, which hotel management said is an exact replica of suite 705 where Steynberg resided at the time, revealed comfortable, spacious rooms. The suites currently go for R$1 500 (about R5 000) a night.

While the total balance of Steynberg’s Club Swan account at the end of the period (to 3 February 2021) was small, at just $7 875, a significant amount was being channelled into and out of the account – deposits totalling $228 914 and withdrawals amounting to $312 016.

A number of transactions involved amounts that were moved into and out of crypto wallets. During this time $155 014 was paid into his account from his crypto wallets, while he transferred $117 000 from his account to his crypto wallets.

Even more revealing is that the Club Swan statement details what he was getting up to in São Paulo, at least in January and February 2021.

For example, on the day he visited the Louis Vuitton store, he also spent $887 (about R13 400 at the time) at the nearby Gero Panini Itaim, an upmarket outdoor restaurant surrounded by trees and high-rise buildings in the heart of the suburb of Itaim Bibi.

On Thursday 14 January, among various transactions, he made two payments of $740 and $870 (totalling over R24 000 at the time) to an account listed as “DV8 Nacoes Unidas 7715”. This turns out to be the address of the luxury Astúrias Motel situated next to the Pinheiros River. Motels are where Brazilians traditionally go to have sex.

The motel’s suites all have wood-panelled rooms and some of the rooms, like the presidential suite and the mansion suite, have a swimming pool, with deck chairs and a fountain. The presidential suite even has a garden, a sun roof and a heated pool with a waterfall.

ALSO READ: South African MIT bitcoin scam operator charged with $1.7 billion fraud in USA

The fact that there are two payments on the same day suggests Steynberg may well have been covering the bill of a friend in another room.

Just over a week later, on Friday 22 January 2021, he was back at the same motel, spending $1 506, and a further $2 500 at Sassa Tranças, a beauty salon at 2450 Cardeal Arcoverde Road, Pinheiros (perhaps to cover non-surgical beauty procedures for Alencar?).

He then visited O’Malley’s, an Irish pub he had been to a few times already, where he spent $373.20 (R5 500).

Inside, TV screens run sports programmes in a small side room with tiled floors and tables. Two carpeted staircases take you up to the first floor, where bands or traditional Irish music get underway from 10pm.

Steynberg then finished off the night again at the same motel, where he paid $805 for a room and service. It’s possible that this was in the evening, while his first visit was in the early hours of the morning, which would account for why the two transactions shared the same date, but were separated by the other transactions mentioned above.

The Club Swan statement also provides evidence of the crypto brokerage service he offered in São Paulo to various clients.

These included Topolosky (who invested R$80 000 with Steynberg), his circle of friends, and even his father and aunt (who together put in R$80 000).

On that day alone he got payments from an “AnaCarlaVedoy” to the value of $74 400 into his account. He then transferred $14 000 to his crypto wallet, while he received $1 800 from his crypto wallet dated 23 January. It’s likely he concluded these two transactions just before and after midnight on that Friday.

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

Difficulties begin …

It seems Steynberg was truly living the life – at least until 2021 began to draw to a close and it became apparent that he may have begun to experience financial difficulties.

Around October 2021 he moved in with Karine Amelya de Andrade dos Santos Paniagua, a 44-year-old newly divorced mother of two teenagers who was his girlfriend at the time of his death.

ALSO READ: MTI kingpin Johann Steynberg reportedly died in Brazil

This saw him relocate from the swanky 41-storey Mandarim Building in the upmarket suburb of Berrini, south-west of the city centre, to the semi-detached rented home she shared with her youngest daughter, in a working-class area right next to the city’s Congonhas airport.

The couple would not stay long at the address, however.

On 24 December 2021 they took a flight to Goiânia to spend Christmas with Karine’s parents. Topolosky was invited along too.

Just five days later Steynberg was arrested – charged with being in possession of two fake IDs.

Just weeks later, as Steynberg sat in Cell 3, Wing B in the special custody unit at the Daniella Cruvinel Police Prison Complex in nearby Aparecida de Goiânia, Karine told federal police in an inquiry that she was surprised about what emerged about Steynberg after he was arrested.

She called him a reserved person who didn’t like going out much.

Even more surprising is that she claimed he hadn’t even been helping to pay their rent.

The subsequent federal police investigation uncovered details of how he obtained two fake IDs from a gang member called “Rodrigo” who also sold him cocaine and organised fake Covid vaccination certificates for him and a friend. The investigation also revealed details of his investment broker activities in São Paulo.

ALSO READ: Court rules that Bitcoin scam MTI is a Ponzi scheme

Investigators uncovered several transactions they deemed suspicious, including a payment to cover renovations of Alencar’s apartment in the Vila Mariana suburb, and another involving a R$793 000 purchase of a Goiânia property by Karine.

However, Karine told investigators that she would cover the deposit for the property in question from the proceeds of her recent divorce settlement and that she had made the purchase a few months before she had met Steynberg.

Investigators therefore failed, it seemed, to find conclusive proof that he had been involved in laundering alleged ill-gotten gains from MTI into assets in Brazil.

Any hopes of further investigation were quashed when, on 7 August, a federal judge in a São Paulo court put an end to any further investigation when he ordered the investigation closed after Steynberg’s death certificate was sent to the court and police reported that he had died.

Those MTI investors left out of pocket are – it seems – really no closer to knowing what became of their stolen millions and how much of it ended up with Steynberg. Whether he is dead or still alive, what they really want to know is – where are the missing 6 900 bitcoin?