Bitcoin Fraud Case: CFTC Pockets Record $3.4 Billion Judgement
A federal judge in Texas has ordered the head of a South African firm to pay $3.4 billion in connection to a Bitcoin fraud case. Cornelius Johannes Steynberg has been asked to pay $1.7 billion in restitution to victims of the fraud scheme. Alongside, he’s supposed to pay $1.7 billion as a civil penalty. This case is CFTC’s “largest fraud scheme” ever involving Bitcoin. The CFTC formally charged Steynberg in July 2022. According to the Commission, his firm Mirror Trading received Bitcoin online from thousands of people. This was done so to operate a commodity pool. The firm purportedly traded off-exchange, retail foreign currency with ineligible trade participants, according to the regulator. The CFTC labeled this to be an “international fraudulent multilevel marketing scheme.” Additionally, the agency claimed that MTI and Stynberg controlled the commodity pool. However, the defendants “falsely claimed” that there was a proprietary “bot” or software program involved. Sty...