CFTC Brings Charges Against Cryptocurrency Company For $147M

According to the Tokenist, the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has just filed a complaint against cryptocurrency company Control-Finance Limited and its CEO, Benjamin Reynold. The complaint alleges that the firm misappropriated $147M in Bitcoin.

According to the CFTC, Control-Finance and Reynolds were responsible for defrauding around 1,000 people out of around 22.8M BTC. The victims were requested to deposit their funds on the Control-Finance platform. The company promised returns on their investments. They essentially “guaranteed daily trading profits.” They also promoted themselves as veteran, expert cryptocurrency traders.

The CFTC says that Control-Finance was comparable to a ponzi scheme which operated from May 1, 2017 to Oct 31, 2017. The defendants afterwards closed their social media accounts and the company went dark, running away with around $150M.

The CFTC is seeking penalties for the fraudulent firm and relief for victims. Other penalties include permanent trading bans for those involved.

This is not the first time the CFTC has brought charges against fraudulent cases in the cryptocurrency world. In March of this year, the government agency also brought a suit against 1pool LTD for $990,000 in penaltiesŒ over unregistered Bitcoin transactions. However, the CFTC has also been clear that they are not looking to suppress the development of crypto-assets.

Source: The Tokenist