A swindler was forced to pay back $7.40 million to investors by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission yesterday, while promising to safeguard the Bitcoin market. Pet the CFTC’s announcement, James McDonald, Director of the commission’s enforcement division stated:
“The CFTC will continue working to protect our markets, including the burgeoning markets for digital assets such as Bitcoin, from fraudulent schemes, and will work in parallel with our criminal law enforcement colleagues where appropriate.”
Today’s news release is about Jon Barry Thomson, who confessed to committing commodity fraud by persuading two investors to remit him more than $7 million for an investment program designed around Bitcoin.
The scheme never became a reality. The entire saga reflects a wider trend of CFTC taking multiple enforcement actions in the cryptocurrency markets.
Notably, the CFTC has slapped charges against Seychelles-headquartered cryptocurrency exchange Bitmex for failing to enroll as a derivative exchange with the US regulatory bodies.
