Page 24 - 期货和衍生品行业监管动态（2023年7月刊）

期货和衍生品行业监管动态

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission today issued two orders

simultaneously filing and settling charges against Randy Craig Levine, formerly of

Coral Gables, Florida, and Philip Reichenthal of Homestead, Florida, for perpetrating
a multi-million dollar bitcoin fraud.

The orders charge Levine and Reichenthal with engaging in a deceptive and

fraudulent scheme where they knowingly or recklessly made false representations to

investors inducing them to send over $5 million to Reichenthal to buy bitcoin from

Levine. After receiving the investors’ funds, Reichenthal and Levine failed to deliver

the bitcoin as promised and failed to return the investors’ funds.

In the orders, the CFTC imposes full restitution for the victims of the fraud and

permanent trading and registration bans against Levine and Reichenthal.

“The Commission continues to devote substantial attention and resources to

rooting out fraud in the digital assets space,” said Director of Enforcement Ian

McGinley. “The conduct in this case is particularly reprehensible because one of the

fraudsters was an attorney who should have known better, but instead took advantage
of his title. We seek to hold accountable all fraudsters in our markets, but especially

those who abuse their positions of trust.”

Case Background

The orders find that, in or about 2018, Levine and Reichenthal induced two

separate groups of investors to send Reichenthal a combined total of over $5.3 million

to buy bitcoin from Levine. Reichenthal used his position as a licensed attorney to pose

as an escrow agent for the contemplated transactions, and investors were promised that

Reichenthal would hold their funds in his attorney trust accounts in escrow until the

investors received the bitcoin they were expecting to purchase from Levine.

Reichenthal and Levine knew these representations were false. After Reichenthal

received the investors’ funds, he transferred the funds to accounts controlled by Levine

and no bitcoin was delivered to investors. In truth, Reichenthal and Levine never

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