CFTC brings $1.7B fraud case involving Bitcoin against South African national

[Magepai]

The defendants misappropriated, either directly or indirectly, all of the Bitcoin they accepted from the pool participants,” said the CFTC.The United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission, or CFTC, has taken enforcement action against a South African national in what the regulatory body called its “largest fraudulent scheme involving Bitcoin.”

In a Thursday announcement, the CFTC said it had filed a civil enforcement action in federal court for fraud and registration violations against Cornelius Johannes Steynberg. The South African national allegedly created and operated a global foreign currency commodity pool totaling more than $1.7 billion, only allowing the participants to pay using Bitcoin (BTC).more