MTI CEO ordered to pay R62 billion in fraud case

A federal judge in Texas has ordered the South African firm CEO to pay $3.4 billion( R62.5 billion) for what the U.S. Commodity regulator said was its largest-ever fraud case involving Bitcoin.

In a statement by the regulator, The U.S. judge ordered Cornelius Johannes Steynberg to pay $1.7 billion to pay back the victims who were defrauded, he is ordered to pay a civilian penalty of another $1.7 billion.

The CFTC said, from May 2018 to March 2021, Steynberg accepted at least 29 421 bitcoin which were valued at about R31.3 billion. The participants were from the US and Texas, of which 23 000 are based in the US and 1 300 in Texas.

The last know the residence of Steynberg was in South Africa.

The CFTC charged Steynberg in July, saying the company Mirror Trading International (MTI) solicited bitcoin online from thousands of people to operate a commodity pool. The firm claimed to trade off-exchange, retail foreign currency with participants who were not eligible to trade, said the regulator.

The default judgment against Steynberg was granted by Judge Lee Yeakel in Texas, according to a court filing

Source: Kanishka Singh and Chris Prentice; Editing by Daniel Wallis