The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York has ordered Benjamin Reynolds – assumed to be based out of Manchester – to pay a total of $571 million due to his alleged scamming of BTC buyers back in 2017.
The court order in question was decided upon in cooperation with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and consists of $143 million to be paid back to scammed customers, as well as a civil monetary penalty of $429 million.
False Representation
Reynolds allegedly used multiple social media channels, a website and email address – among other methods of communication – to request at least 22,190.542 bitcoin – which were worth around $143 million at the time, from over 1,000 customers around the globe. 169 of these individuals are assumed to be living in the U.S., although there may be others who remain unknown.
Allegedly, Reynolds pretended to be running a company that traded the Bitcoins customers sent him, which were traded around by “specialized virtual currency traders” on a variety of platforms and who generated “guaranteed trading profits”.
No matter how great a trader is, everyone takes a loss sometimes – so this line should have tipped off most people regarding the nature of the “business”.
The CFTC also stated that although they have done their best to help victims of the purported scam recover their funds, they cannot guarantee the return of any funds – seeing as the accused may not have enough funds to cover the payments, if any.
“The CFTC cautions victims that restitution orders may not result in the recovery of any money lost because the wrongdoers may not have sufficient funds or assets. The CFTC will continue to fight vigorously for the protection of customers and to ensure wrongdoers are held accountable. “
The CFTC also thanked the British Columbia Securities Commission and the UK Financial Conduct Authority for their help in the investigation.
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