CFTC wins record $3.4 B penalty payment in Bitcoin- related fraud case

The CFTC said it’s the largest fraudulent Bitcoin scheme charged in any of its cases and the “ loftiest civil financial penalty ordered in a CFTC case. ”

A record- breaking $3.4 billion penalty has been handed down by a Judge in a action brought by a United States fiscal controller involving a fraudulent scheme involving Bitcoin

BTC tickers down $ 29,423.

An April 27 statement from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission said Texas District Court Judge Lee Yeakel ordered Cornelius Johannes Steynberg to pay the sum for his part in negotiating a fraudulent commodity pool scheme involving foreign currency deals and Bitcoin.

Steynberg, a South African public and CEO of Mirror Trading International Proprietary Limited( MTI), a purported trading and networking company, was ordered to pay$1.73 billion in reparation to defrauded victims and an fresh$1.73 billion civil financial penalty.

The CFTC said it’s the “ loftiest civil financial penalty ordered in any CFTC case ” and also “ the largest fraudulent scheme involving Bitcoin charged in any CFTC case. ”

The order explained that as the head of MTI, Steynberg “ engaged in an transnational fraudulent multilevel marketing scheme to solicit Bitcoin from members of the public for participation in an unrecorded commodity pool, ” the value of which totaled further than$1.7 billion as of March 2021.

From May 2018 to March 2021, the CFTC claimed, he accepted at least 29,421 BTC valued further than$1.7 billion at the time but presently worth roughly$ 867 million — from 23,000 individualities in theU.S. and indeed more encyclopedically.

“ Either directly or laterally, the defendants boosted all of the Bitcoin they accepted from pool actors, ” the CFTC wrote.

According to the April 27 order, Steynberg was set up liable for fraud in connection with retail foreign currency deals, fraud by an associated person of a commodity pool driver( CPO), enrollment violations and failure to misbehave with CPO regulations.

also, Steynberg is permanently banned from engaging in conduct that violates the Commodity Exchange Act( CEA). He’s also permanently banned from registering with the CFTC or trading in any CFTC- regulated requests.

On June 30, 2022, the CFTC blazoned that it had filed a civil enforcement action in civil court for fraud and enrollment violations against Steynberg.

originally, Steynberg fled from South African law enforcement and is presently a fugitive but has been detained in Brazil on an INTERPOL arrest leave since December 2021.