Federal prosecutors filed accusations against a German businessman on Friday, claiming that he conned investors out of almost $150 million through a cryptocurrency scam.

Horst Jicha marketed USI Tech, the business he started and oversaw as CEO, according to the prosecution, as a cryptocurrency mining and trading platform “accessible to the average retail investor.” In reality, however, authorities claim that Jicha and two other unidentified co-conspirators—both executives of USI Tech—lured and tricked investors through a “multilevel marketing scheme.”

Jicha entered the country on December 23 for the first time in more than five years with the intention of travelling to Miami for vacation. According to authorities, they arrested him and unsealed an indictment against him that included four charges: money laundering, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud, and securities fraud. On Friday morning, he was arraigned in federal court in Brooklyn.

The company allegedly made misleading claims about investors’ potential to earn up to 140% returns on cryptocurrency investments made through its platform on its website, in social media posts, and at live events, according to the prosecution.

Prosecutors claimed that Jicha and his accomplices started “aggressively promoting” USI Tech in the spring of 2017.

According to the indictment, one of Jicha’s co-conspirators said during a live event in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, that USI Tech’s legality had been approved by “the very top SEC attorney.”

Prosecutors claimed that Jicha shut down USI Tech’s operations in 2018 when regulators started to investigate the company, preventing investors from taking their money out. Prosecutors claimed on Friday that since then, almost $150 million of the money has been moved to accounts under Jicha’s control.

“It’s always difficult when investors have suffered losses at the hands of certain bad actors,” Marissel Descalzo and David Tarras, Jicha’s attorneys, wrote in a statement. “We look forward to zealously defending the allegations against. Jicha and bringing forth the facts of his involvement with USI Tech in hopes that the bad actors will be brought to justice.”

(Adapted from CNBC.com)