The U.S. commodity regulator, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), has filed a civil lawsuit against a South African company and its CEO. These lawsuits were initiated because the company was managing a fraudulent commodity pool. This one is estimated to be worth more than $ 1.7 billion in Bitcoins.
South African company Mirror Trading International Proprietary Limited is being sued for fraud by the CFTC
The CFTC is suing Mirror Trading International Proprietary Limited (MTI). South African bitcoin pool operator Cornelius Johannes Steynberg, its CEO, requested online bitcoins from thousands of people, including 23,000 Americans, between May 2018 and March 2021. The man organized a system scheme to more scrapped more than $ 1.7 billion. The CFTC alleges that MTI established a scheme » seek, acquire and pool more than $ 1.7 billion. And this, to trade foreign currencies (forex) on a retail basis on the basis of leverage, margins and / or financing. “.
CFTC says MTI was just a Ponzi scheme
The CFTC said that instead of trading currencies as required by MTI, the company released mutual funds. In fact MTI misrepresented trading and performance, falsified account statements and used a fake broker in which the trades took place. Only a fraction of the 29,421 bitcoins were pooled. Cornelius Johannes Steynberg and the company also lied about using ” robots »Commercial. The BTC amount of this Ponzi scheme is the largest ever managed by the CFTC to date.
23,000 US citizens were scammed among others
” The defendants adopted a fraudulent international marketing scheme. The latter occurred at different levels through various websites, as well as social networks. It was intended to solicit Bitcoins from members of the public to join us. At least 23,000 of the pool participants were from the United States – most, if not all, of whom were not eligible contract participants. “, Can we read the CFTC statement.
The CFTC complaint is a request for full compensation on behalf of the participants who have been defrauded. Along with civil monetary penalties, trade bans and permanent registration, and other compensation Inter Interpol in Brazil recently arrested the Fugitive Cornelius Steynberg. Many companies assimilated into the blockchain universe – or not – were involved in Ponzi scams. Questions in particular arise regarding the trendy blockchain game StepN…
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Gregory Morat
A student passionate about entrepreneurship and interested in the technologies behind cryptos! Yes, I’m sure the two are closely linked: blockchain and NFTs are revolutionizing many sectors and presenting unprecedented opportunities.
