As per the regulator’s statement, Steynberg, the CEO of Mirror Trading International Proprietary Limited (MTI) allegedly used Bitcoin (BTC) payment to lure investors into the commodity pool, as per the regulator’s statement. MTI, founded by Steynberg and led by him, failed to comply with regulations and register as a CPO.
The derivatives watchdog also described Steynberg’s operation as an “international fraudulent multilevel marketing scheme.”
The CFTC stated:
MTI and Stynberg controlled the commodity pool and purportedly traded off-exchange, retail forex through what they 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 March 2021—from at least 23,000 individuals in the U.S., and even more throughout the world, to participate in the commodity pool without being registered as a CPO as required. The defendants either directly or indirectly misappropriated the Bitcoin that they accepted from participants.
The CFTC’s statement noted that Steynberg is…
