The United States District Court for the Western District of Texas has ordered Mirror Trading International (MTI) to pay $1.7 billion in restitution to victims for operating a fraudulent scheme involving digital assets and forex. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced the decision on September 7.
The CFTC stated that MTI and its CEO, Cornelius Steynberg, were involved in an 'international multi-level marketing scheme' which accepted nearly 30,000 Bitcoin (BTC) from at least 23,000 people in the United States. MTI and Steynberg allegedly promised to provide access to an unregistered commodity pool in exchange for BTC contributions, which never occurred. The CFTC added that the latest court order and restitution effectively conclude a case that the authority filed in June 2022.
MTI went into provisional liquidation in late 2020 after one of its directors allegedly fled the country, taking all Bitcoin that investors had entrusted to MTI. In January 2021, MTI claimed to have over 260,000 members in 170 countries, with investors losing roughly $1 billion at the time of the liquidation. The MTI fraud is believed to be one of the largest Ponzi schemes involving digital assets in history.
