U.S. Judge Slams Bitcoin Fraudster with $1.9 Million in Penalties
The United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has successfully prosecuted a bitcoin fraudster in connection with his criminal bitcoin investment program, which he used to extract hundreds of thousands of dollars from his victims.
The CFTC announcing the successful case in a press release revealed that on July 9th, 2018, Dillon Michael Dean of Longmont, CO, and The Entrepreneurs Headquarters Limited, his registered company, were ordered to pay more than $1.9 million in civil monetary penalties and restitution.
According to the Order and Default Judgment delivered by Judge Sandra J. Feuerstein of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, Dean and TEH dishonestly solicited bitcoin investments from the general public using false promises of fund pooling and investment in binary options.
After collecting funds from investors this way, Dean misappropriated their funds, converting them to personal use without the investors’ knowledge. Going further, the judgment stated that, unlike what he told investors, Dean was never registered with the CFTC as a Commodity Pool Operator (CPO) and Associated Person of a CPO, as required by law.
Carrying on this illegal operation from April 2017, the court found that Dean obtained at least $499,264.04 in investor bitcoin funds from not less than 127 people. His pitch to investors was that he would convert their bitcoin to fiat, which he would then invest on their behalf.
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Culled from CCN