America Commodity Futures Buying and selling Fee, or CFTC, has taken enforcement motion towards a South African nationwide in what the regulatory physique referred to as its “largest fraudulent scheme involving Bitcoin.”

In a Thursday announcement, the CFTC said it had filed a civil enforcement motion in federal court docket for fraud and registration violations towards Cornelius Johannes Steynberg. The South African nationwide allegedly created and operated a worldwide overseas foreign money commodity pool totaling greater than $1.7 billion, solely permitting the members to pay utilizing Bitcoin (BTC).

The CFTC alleged that Steynberg used the South Africa-based agency Mirror Buying and selling Worldwide Proprietary Restricted to solicit BTC from the general public utilizing social media and numerous web sites. From Might 2018 to March 2021, the regulatory physique claimed that he accepted not less than 29,421 BTC — valued at greater than $1.7 billion on the time, however roughly $564 million on the time of publication — together with from people in the US.

“The defendants misappropriated, both immediately or not directly, all the Bitcoin they accepted from the pool members,” mentioned the CFTC. “The CFTC seeks full restitution to defrauded buyers, disgorgement of ill-gotten features, civil financial penalties, everlasting registration and buying and selling bans, and a everlasting injunction towards future violations of the Commodity Change Act and CFTC Laws.”

ENFORCEMENT NEWS: CFTC Costs South African Pool Operator and CEO with $1.7 Billion Fraud Involving Bitcoin. https://t.co/cvNlksPznw

— CFTC (@CFTC) June 30, 2022

The CFTC’s motion towards Gemini is unhealthy information for Bitcoin ETFs

The case towards Steynberg is the most recent in a collection of enforcement actions the CFTC has taken towards people allegedly utilizing cryptocurrencies for illicit functions or digital asset corporations for violations of the Commodity Change Act. In June, the CFTC filed a lawsuit towards Gemini, claiming the crypto alternate made false or deceptive statements to the regulatory physique in 2017. A federal court docket additionally ordered the founders of crypto derivatives alternate BitMEX to pay $30 million in penalties as a part of the conclusion of a go well with filed by the CFTC in October 2020.