CFTC Charges South African Firm and CEO With $1.7 Billion Bitcoin Fraud
— Billion, Bitcoin, Trading, Firm, Fraud, Participants, Cftc, Steynberg, Pool, Charges — 1 min read
The CFTC charged Cornelius Johannes Steynberg of South Africa and the company he ran, Mirror Trading International Proprietary Limited, with fraud and registration violations. It is the largest fraudulent scheme involving bitcoin charged in any CFTC case, according to the regulator. The company allegedly misappropriated the more than 29,000 bitcoin they accepted from pool participants. The complaint alleges Steynburg made fraudulent omissions of material facts in solicitations to actual and prospective pool participants, including that he and his company failed to disclose that there was no trading “bot” trading on behalf of participants, the complaint states. Steynenberg was a fugitive from South African law enforcement, and was recently detained in Brazil on an Interpol arrest warrant. Source