A Brazilian judge ruled that Mirror Trading International’s CEO should remain in precautionary custody as South African authorities have provided their Brazilian counterparts the documentation required to extradite the CEO. Johann Steynberg’s attempt to use his Brazilian family to end his precautionary detention was also rejected by the judge.

Documentation for Steynberg’s Formal Extradition

A Brazilian judge rejected Johann Steynberg’s application to have his precautionary custody revoked. Steynberg is the man behind Mirror Trading International (MTI), South Africa’s largest cryptocurrency scams. According to reports, MTI’s chief executive had claimed that he should be placed under house arrest as a result of no extradition request.

Steynberg also argued that when he left South Africa in December 2020, there was no outstanding warrant for his arrest and that the case itself failed to meet certain requirements which would make extradition possible. According to the Brazilian judiciary’s document, Steynberg also stated that he had started a family in Brazil since December. Therefore, placing him under house arrest would suffice.

However, in his ruling, Brazilian supreme court judge Andre Mendonca rejected arguments brought forward by Steynberg. The judge stated that the South African authorities had actually “presented documentation aimed to formalize the extradition request [on April 14, 2022.]”

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In addition, the judge noted that a warrant for Steynberg’s arrest was also “issued on 03/01/2022 by the Justice of South Africa, as evidenced by Interpol’s Red Diffusion documents.” A document reportedly sent by the South African Public Ministry suggested that the MTI CEO was being probed for his role in the bitcoin scam when he left the country.

Steynberg a Flight Risk

As previously reported by Bitcoin.com News, before disappearing in late 2020, Steynberg had handed control of MTI funds to his wife Nerina. Yet by the time he was arrested by Brazilian law enforcement in December 2021, the former MTI mastermind was reportedly in a relationship with a Brazilian woman.

Regarding Steynberg’s attempt to use his intimate relationship and the unnamed woman to justify his extradition, Mendonca stated:

The fact that the person being extradited has taken up residence in Brazil and constituted a family does not, in itself, prevent the precautionary arrest and the future extradition. According to the Attorney General’s Office the rule in extraditions does not prevent the person being extradited from taking up residence in Brazil and forming a family.

The judge stated that Steynberg may have fake identification documents at the time he was arrested, which suggests that he intends to avoid possible criminal liability.

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