US CFTC charges MTI CEO over Bitcoin Ponzi scheme

The United States Commodities regulatory body dragged Cornelius Johannes Steynberg of South Africa in a Bitcoin-related fraud case.

Mirror Trading International (MTI) was a popular Bitcoin investment platform in South Africa & Australia. MTI was providing 0.5% per day return on investment & also turning long-term investment into 500% for holding for a year. In 2020 many investors noted that they were failing to withdraw funds. Later the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) raided the homes of some MTI executives. After these reports, MTI CEO Johann Steynberg disappeared with investors’ funds & finally, the MTI platform collapsed with $589 Million fraud. 

On 28 March 2023, The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) confirmed that the federal court ordered MTI CEO to pay more than $3.4 billion for forex fraud. 

Here $3.4 billion is a fine against MTI CEO over the Ponzi Bitcoin investment scheme & defrauding huge numbers of American citizens.

Earlier in Q2 2022, The CFTC agency announced charges against MTI company directly. 

CFTC & Crypto 

In the US, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and CFTC bodies are two dominant financial regulatory bodies. CFTC regulates only those crypto companies & assets which fall under the commodity laws or deal in Commodity assets. 

In the present time, CFTC & the SEC agency are not open to provide clarity on behalf of the traditional laws to explain the actual class of Crypto assets. Under the purview of CFTC, Bitcoin & Ethereum are commodity assets.

While the SEC agency believes Bitcoin is only a commodity and all other crypto assets are security.

Recently SEC chairman Gary Gensler said that the crypto sector is not running under an unclear regulatory framework and claimed that securities laws are clear enough.

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