regulator has filed civil charges against a South African man and his company for operating a fraudulent commodity pool worth over US$1.7-billion in bitcoin.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission said the fraud scheme, which saw the firm solicit bitcoin online from thousands of people to purportedly operate a commodity pool, was the largest it had ever pursued involving the cryptocurrency. The CFTC filed charges against Mirror Trading International and its CEO, Cornelius Johannes Steynberg.
In reality, only a small portion of the pooled bitcoin was ever invested, at a loss, and the rest was “misappropriated”, according to the CFTC. The company ultimately filed for bankruptcy in 2021, shortly after which South African authorities launched a fraud investigation.