Financial CFTC to pay $1.7 billion after the SA Bitcoin trading firm was found guilty of defrauding investors. (Image by Image by VIN JDfrom Pixabay)
We visit a news story coming out of South Africa’s crypto sphere in today’s latest news. Commodities Trading Futures Commission (CFTC) in South Africa has been given a massive fine for allegedly conning investors.
Whether the case will go to appeal and the company fights the penalty remains to be seen. I will cover the story so you know what is happening. This is especially useful if you are a crypto casino player from South Africa.
Recently, here on Livecasinocentral, I produced a cryptocurrency live casino gaming guide. One to the key points to playing at a Bitcoin casino or a platform that also accepts other cryptos is licensing. This webpage aims to guide you to play at top crypto casinos while also making the right decisions when using a crypto wallet to fund your gambling entertainment bankroll.
The first advice is to only play at online casinos with an austerity regulating the website’s gambling activities, finances, consumer rights, privacy, and player funds. Another point worth mentioning is that you should apply the same principles to your cryptocurrency exchange and/or wallet. Now, I highly recommend using MetaMask. However, plenty of extremely popular and well-known crypto wallets and exchanges exist. Binance, the Fastex Exchange, Coinbase (in some cases), and there are bound to be exchanges in your country that operate under local financial licensing laws.
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You can check Coinmarketcap, and expert in cryptocurrency wallets for some more suggestions covering the Top Crypto Wallets for Virtual Gambling. Now let’s get into the nitty gritty of the latest crypto alleged crypto scandal!
The Fraudulent Firm and Its Penalties
A South African Bitcoin trading firm is being permanently banned and ordered to pay a massive penalty of $1.7 billion. These penalties are due to the trading firm defrauding investors and will be used as compensation to those investors. The Commodities Trading Futures Commission (CFTC) stated in a recent press release that a judge decided that Mirror Trading International Proprietary Limited (MTI) has to compensate the victims of its fraudulent activities.
MTI has been found guilty of a multi-level marketing fraud scheme that used foreign currency transactions and Bitcoin (BTC). They have been accused of stealing almost 30,000 BTC and defrauding thousands of investors. Most victims are based in the US, but many are from worldwide.
Legal Proceedings and Record Penalty
The original complaint was filed in June of 2022, and after a lengthy investigation, a federal court ruled on 6 September 2023. The 1.7 billion USD is to be paid as restitution to the defrauded victims of MTI’s activities. This amount makes it the highest civil monetary penalty in any CFTC case. The court found that MTI, under the authority of Cornelius Johannes Steynberg, was running a marketing scheme from 2018 to 2021 whereby it was soliciting BTC from its victims. It did so by getting them to partake in an unregistered commodity pool.
Permanently Banned and Trading Restrictions
On top of the record-breaking penalty, the firm is also permanently banned in several ways. That includes a registration ban and trading bans in all markets related to the CFTC. This is not the first time that the people involved have been under investigation. In April 2023, a default judgment was made against the MTI CEO, Cornelius Johannes Steynberg. Steynberg seems to have spent years scamming people and become quite skilled.
CFTC’s Vigilance and Victim Count
The Director of Enforcement with CFTC said they will pursue scam artists and fraudsters wherever they might be. He also gave some details about the case, saying that 23,000 individuals from the US have been victims of the fraud. Furthermore, he also said that MTI used a classic multilevel marketing scheme that hooked people in by promising vast amounts of wealth and returns for investors. They made it seem safe by claiming they use advanced security software.
Uncertainty About Compensation
It is unclear how much of the scammed money will be returned to the victims at this stage. Likely, MTI does not have sufficient funds and assets to cover the entire $1.7 billion. They will be liquidated, and all the money that can be reclaimed will be paid back to the victims. Unfortunately, the compensation may be nowhere near the amount of money that people lost in the fraudulent scheme.
The CFTC also cautions people not to be overly eager to get involved in investment opportunities that sound too good. Careful action should be taken to prevent this kind of fraud from happening too quickly.
Find South African Crypto Casinos: Most casinos that accept crypto are available via Curacao online casinos. And they all accept players from South Africa. If you are unsure which wallet to use to find your account at one of these casinos, you can always email their support. Here is the SA live casino webpage so you can get started on your crypto casino entertainment adventure.
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