MTI kingpin Johann Steynberg: Dead or alive?

This is the first 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 last month, Stephen Timm attempts to piece together what really happened to Steynberg in Brazil.

MTI CEO Johann Steynberg was reported to have died in Goiânia, Brazil, in April 2024 by Brazilian media, some three-and-a-half years after he fled to the country following the implosion of one of the world’s biggest cryptocurrency scams at the time.

But a visit by Moneyweb last month to the cemetery where he is said to be buried has raised a number of questions, and is likely to fuel suspicion over whether he is indeed dead or not.

MTI was declared a Ponzi scheme in April last year by the Western Cape High Court, following the company’s liquidation in June 2021. It had been unable to pay investors in December 2020 after Steynberg fled to Brazil.

In a 7 August ruling in a São Paulo court, federal judge Silvio Gemaque ordered the criminal investigation into Steynberg be closed, after the court requested that steps be taken by the police to confirm news of his death and after his death certificate was added to court records.

According to the death certificate, Steynberg died on 22 April 2024 of a pulmonary embolism. But some in South Africa believe he may have faked his owned death.

This doesn’t seem like a far-fetched possibility when you consider he was sentenced in a court in Goiânia in the state of Goiás in June 2022 for the use of fake identity documents (the sentence was subsequently overturned in an appeal in June 2023, after the court declared that the police carried out an illegal search on the home he was staying at during the time).

Last month Moneyweb visited Goiânia’s Jardim das Palmeiras cemetery, just 3km north of the city centre’s leafy civic square in a semi-industrial area, where local media reported he was buried on 24 April 2024.

ALSO READ: MTI kingpin Johann Steynberg reportedly died in Brazil

On a small rise just a few hundred metres from the cemetery’s entrance and set among rows of otherwise non-descript graves and well-tendered gardens lies one particular barren and neglected looking plot.

If it wasn’t for the upturned red earth, which seems to suggest that the ground has been disturbed recently, this patch of ground could easily be missed. There is nothing untoward about it. Yet beneath this simple patch, we are told, lie the remains of Steynberg.

But Moneyweb discovered that while he is listed on the registry system of Fama Vida, the private consortium that runs the cemetery, as being buried in gravesite number “299” in block “E”, his name appears nowhere on the grave.

In its place, the names of three persons are inscribed on a small stone on the ground: “Luis Leito de Andrade, Romeu R de Andrade and Olga Carbiati de Andrade” – all of whom died between 1984 and 2008.

They appear to be relatives of Steynberg’s then Brazilian girlfriend, Karine Amelya de Andrade dos Santos Paniagua, 47, who these days runs a business in Goiânia called Clinica Sensis, offering liposuction and botox treatments for R$650 to R$4 000 (R2 000 to R12 300), according to an Instagram account in the name of Clinica Sensis.

Cemetery officials told Moneyweb the gravesite where Steynberg is listed as being buried is being taken care of by a Marcelo Leopoldo de Andrade and was originally registered in the name of Luis Leito de Andrade (as it is a private cemetery, one must pay for plots).

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

In the cemetery’s administration block, an official who gave her name only as “Diane”, pointed to a computer screen with an entry in the cemetery’s register that indicates that Steynberg is buried in E-299.

The registry system also indicates that the remains of Luis Leito de Andrade were exhumed recently. The official explained that while that particular gravesite has three levels, which allows coffins to be stacked one upon the other, it is often necessary to remove the previous coffin to make space for a new one in its place.

She explained that a single gravesite like this one, with space initially for just three coffins, can hold a far larger amount of human remains.

She claimed that it is not unusual for some families to have a body buried in a gravesite without the person’s name appearing on the stone itself.

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

It’s also common in Brazil, she said, for a family to allow a distant family member, or even a close family friend, to be buried in the family gravesite – to avoid someone having to pay the once-off cost or regular rental for a new grave plot, or risk being buried in a pauper’s grave.

Another employee seated in an office marked “Manager”, and who gave her name only as “Paula”, said one can only “imagine” why someone would elect not to put Steynberg’s name on the grave.

She pointed to a room across from her office featuring large cream-coloured floor tiles and whitewashed walls, with “Room five” marked above the door. Other than a marble slab with a metal cross pinned to the wall behind it, the room contains only two large marble seats, positioned on either side of the slab. This, she said, is where Steynberg’s wake was held the day before he was buried.

She said his wake was like any other, but seemed to recall that there weren’t any family members in attendance, just his girlfriend.

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

‘John no longer exists’

Thales Jayme, Steynberg’s attorney, told Moneyweb during a visit to his offices that he attended the wake at the request of Steynberg’s parents. He declined to comment on any of the details of the case, saying the case had been a big “headache” for him.

“I won’t gain one centavo from commenting on it, and will only run the risk of prejudicing myself by commenting,” he said. He added that I should “forget about this issue” as “John no longer exists”.

The manager of Fama Vida, the consortium that runs the cemetery, said that about 15 days after Steynberg’s burial, officials from Interpol arrived at her office to get proof that he was indeed buried in the cemetery.

She said they requested records that indicated his body had been assigned to the plot where he is said to be buried and also asked for video footage of the wake, given that there is a security camera in each of the rooms. However, she indicated to them that the camera in room five points towards the door, and not at the stone slab on which the coffin would’ve been placed.

The police officials therefore left without any footage. But she said they seemed satisfied with the records she provided them with.

While the spokesperson for the federal police in Goiás, Rômulo Mendonça Bailão, confirmed in an email to Moneyweb on 29 October 2024 that Interpol did go to the Jardim das Palmeiras cemetery, he did not provide a date for their visit.

He added only that “the federal police does not comment on any investigation that has been completed and handed over to the judiciary”.

An MTI investor Moneyweb spoke to, who asked not to be identified, mentioned a video sent via WhatsApp showing Steynberg’s body lying in an open casket and a woman crying next to the casket – but it is unclear whether such a video exists. The investor in question did not send Moneyweb a copy of the alleged video when asked to do so.

ALSO READ: Made some money off Time for Mirror Trading International? It’s time to pay up

Emergency call at 10.45pm

However, the state’s military fire brigade confirmed that it received a request at 10:45pm on 22 April from the address of Steynberg’s girlfriend’s home in Vila São João, where he is listed on his death certificate as having died.

The request was to attend to a “40-year-old man who had experienced a heart attack and a cyanotic heart defect (a bluish or purplish discolouration which takes places when there is a lack of oxygen in the blood)”.

The fire brigade forwarded the request to the city’s first-aid service (Serviço de Atendimento Móvel de Urgência), which attended to the occurrence, according to the fire brigade.

Moneyweb sent an email enquiry to the city’s health department on 30 October, with a number of follow-up emails, but had not received a response by the time of publication.

ALSO READ: Victims of MTI Bitcoin scam anxiously waiting for Steynberg’s extradition

Time of death – 11.25pm

The city’s official coroner, Dr Larissa Pereira da Costa Sampaio, who conducted an autopsy on Steynberg, noted his time of death as 11.25pm, but declined, via the city, to provide any further details of his death or to meet with Moneyweb.

“The professional has already provided clarifications to the federal police and the embassy, as required by the competent bodies,” the city said in an emailed response on 2 October 2024.

The city’s health inspectorate, which is mandated to investigate all deaths for which there is no obvious cause of death, stated that Pereira da Costa Sampaio (the coroner) had “already provided clarifications to the Federal Police and the embassy, clarifying all doubts regarding the case”.

Without referencing any particular regulation, the health inspectorate said that in terms of “Article 102” it is forbidden for a doctor to “reveal any fact that he/she has knowledge of by virtue of the exercise of his/her profession, except for just cause, legal duty or express authorisation of the patient, in this case in question only to the first-degree relative in person”.

It was therefore “not possible to provide clarification to the press”, it said.

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

House arrest

At the time of his death Steynberg was under house arrest, which he began serving after his release from the special custody unit at the Daniella Cruvinel Police Prison Complex in Aparecida de Goiânia in June 2023 (where he had been held since December 2021), the spokesperson of the state’s prisons directorate Warlem Sabino confirmed to Moneyweb.

While Sabino said his conditions would’ve included having to wear an ankle bracelet so that he could be tracked, a court in September last year had granted him access to his laptops and cellphone.

Those remanded under house arrest are usually permitted to work, but it is unclear what Steynberg would’ve been doing to fill his days at the time.

Local newspaper O Popular reported that he had been staying on a farm near Pirenópolis, a town over 120km from Goiania.

Moneyweb requested the address of the farm in question but was told by Sabino that only the judiciary could comment on where he was being held.

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

At the time of publication, the Federal Judiciary in Goiás had not yet responded to a request to reveal the address, after acknowledging receipt of Moneyweb’s email on 6 November.

Steynberg’s attorney Jayme, who is also vice-president of Goiás’s order of attorneys, has a farm called Fazenda Sardinha near Pirenópolis, but told Moneyweb Steynberg had been staying at someone else’s farm.

He did not provide the address or any further details during Moneyweb’s brief visit to his offices.

Jayme’s CV describes a well-connected individual who is also president of the prestigious Goiás Country Club, and who served as executive superintendent of Goiás’s Secretariat of Public Security from 2011 to 2013.

A 2018 article in the local newspaper, Jornal Opção, described Jayme as a friend of spirit medium and former client, João Teixeira de Faria, or João de Deus, who is serving a 489-year sentence for sexually abusing several women.

None of this suggests that Steynberg did indeed fake his death, something that, according to experts, is an extremely difficult and costly exercise to get right. However, the lack of video footage of his wake and the reluctance of officials and his lawyer to comment is likely to continue to raise eyebrows among some who believe foul play has been involved.

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