CFTC Fines Bitcoin Fraudster $3.4 Billion

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has imposed a record fine of $3.4bn on Cornelius Johannes Steinberg.

Steinberg, head of Mirror Trading International Proprietary Limited (MTI), will pay two equal sums. $1.73bn as compensation to victims of the fraud and another $1.73bn as a civil money penalty.

It swindled bitcoins from investors allegedly to participate in an unregistered commodity pool (CPO). Between May 2018 and March 2021, the "businessman" received a minimum of 29,421 BTC.