MTI boss: dead or alive?

JOHANN STEYNBERG: REPORTEDLY DIED IN BRAZIL AMID RUMOURS IT'S FAKED

- Stephen Timm

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 Sao 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 Goiania, Brazil, in April this year 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 Sao 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 of a pulmonary embolism. But some in South Africa believe he may have faked his own death.