Cryptocurrency has been the talk of the town lately and people more or less understand this concept of Cryptocurrency and Bitcoin trading. However, we can all agree that back in 2016-17, there was not much clarity offered to the public on what cryptocurrency actually is and how do we trade in the stock market with this digital currency as it was a game of profits at that time.
Having said that, new technology will lead to newer crimes and scams, especially when the users are not well informed about the subject. One such incident that took place in the year 2017 involved a United Kingdoms resident who was scamming the people into sending him more and more cryptocurrency with a promise to trade their digital currency in the market for a higher rate of returns.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has recently on Friday announced that the federal court of Manhattan requires this U.K man named Benjamin Reynolds to pay USD 429 million as fine and USD 143 million in restitution for his crime to the authorities.
However, collecting the total amount of USD 571 million as penalty for scamming people to send Reynolds more than 20,000 Bitcoin can be a bit of a challenge for the United States authorities because no one knows where the alleged fraudster is.
The main story behind his crime as mentioned in a report by Bloomberg Quint revolved around the time between May 2017 and October 2017 where the alleged fraudster, Reynolds who is from Manchester solicited and collected Bitcoin from consumers, telling them the selling story that he would trade their Bitcoin cryptocurrency tokens in the virtual currency stock markets to increase their profit margins for them, says the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The report further clarifies that no such trades were made by Reynolds on behalf of his so-called clients and that he had made these people no money at all. The volume of Bitcoin that we are dealing with in this case is more than 20,000 which valued at over USD 143 million at that time, back in 2017. The alleged fraudster duped almost around 170 customers in the United States and the authorities will be taking strict actions against the same.
The Southern District of New York issued an order earlier this month, as reported by Bloomberg Quint which mentioned that Reynolds has failed to appear or answer to the complaints issued in his name by the CFTC. The authorities have notified the victims that their assets may or may not recover depending on the fraudsters ability to pay.