Page 20 - 期货和衍生品行业监管动态（2022年7月）

期货和衍生品行业监管动态

under the laws of the Republic of South Africa, with fraud and registration violations.
Steynberg created and operated, through MTI, a global foreign currency commodity

pool that only accepted Bitcoin to purchase a participation in the pool, with a value of

over $1,733,838,372. This action is the largest fraudulent scheme involving Bitcoin

charged in any CFTC case.

In its continuing litigation, the CFTC seeks full restitution to defrauded investors,

disgorgement of ill-gotten gains, civil monetary penalties, permanent registration and

trading bans, and a permanent injunction against future violations of the Commodity

Exchange Act and CFTC Regulations.The CFTC cautions victims that restitution

orders may not result in the recovery of money lost, because the wrongdoers may not

have sufficient funds or assets.

Case Background

The complaint charges that from approximately May 18, 2018 through
approximately March 30, 2021, Steynberg, individually and as the controlling person

of MTI, engaged in an international fraudulent multilevel marketing scheme, using

the websites www.mirrortradinginternational.au.za, www.mtimembers.com, and

www.mymticlub.com, in addition to social media, to solicit Bitcoin from members of

the public for participation in a commodity pool operated by MTI. The commodity

pool was controlled by MTI and Steynberg and purportedly traded off-exchange,

retail foreign currency on a leveraged, margined and/or financed basis with

participants who were not eligible contract participants (ECPs) through what the

defendants falsely claimed was a proprietary “bot” or software program. During this

period, Steynberg, individually, and as the principal and agent of MTI, accepted at

least 29,421 Bitcoin—with a value of over $1,733,838,372 at the end of the

period—from approximately 23,000 non-ECPs from the United States, and even more

throughout the world, to participate in the commodity pool without being registered as
a commodity pool operator as required. The defendants misappropriated, either

directly or indirectly, all of the Bitcoin they accepted from the pool participants.

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