ChainCatcher reported that according to the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the Federal Court ordered the South African company Mirror Trading International Proprietary Limited (MTI) to pay more than $1.7 billion in foreign exchange fraud compensation. The ruling found that the company had engaged in fraud in retail foreign exchange transactions, fraud as a commodity pool operator (CPO), violated registration regulations, and failed to comply with CPO regulations.
It is reported that Steynberg, the controller of MTI, participated in an international fraudulent multi-level marketing scheme, selling Bitcoin to people to participate in the unregistered commodity pool operated by MTI. It claimed to conduct over-the-counter retail foreign exchange transactions through the defendant's falsely claimed proprietary "robot" or software program. During this period, Steynberg, as a principal and agent for himself and MTI, obtained at least 29,421 Bitcoins from at least 23,000 individuals in the United States and thousands of individuals around the world. The court found that Steynberg directly or indirectly embezzled all the Bitcoin they obtained from the commodity pool participants. MTI is currently in liquidation in the Republic of South Africa.
