British scammer who stole 20,000 Bitcoins was ordered to pay $570 million but cannot be found

Last Friday, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced a verdict against a British Bitcoin scammer involving 20,000 bitcoins, which, based on the current price of $55,000 per bitcoin, has exceeded $1.1 billion!

The CFTC said a federal court had sentenced the man in absentia earlier this month, ordering him to pay a fine of $429 million and $143 million in compensation, for a total fine of more than $570 million.

According to the CFTC statement, the man named Benjamin Reynolds, who is said to be from Manchester, England, defrauded more than 20,000 bitcoins from more than 1,000 clients around the world, including nearly 170 American clients, through websites, social media and emails between May and October 2017, under the pretext of financial management. The case was worth about $143 million at the time. Reynolds even introduced a pyramid scheme in this scam, using generous conditions to lure the deceived clients to bring in more people. American netizens said, "What a talent."

The CFTC then indicted the man in January 2019, and the federal court made the above ruling earlier this month.

The verdict was handed down, but enforcement became a big problem because the US authorities knew nothing about the man except his name. He even failed to show up for the trial earlier this month, resulting in the court ruling in absentia.

Taking a step back, even if the scammer is found, the CFTC warns victims that the defrauded assets may not be recovered because the scammer may have squandered the money and may not have sufficient funds or assets to repay.

In foreign countries, scams using Bitcoin as a gimmick are common, and they occur frequently in Europe and the United States. The means of fraud are endless, including platforms, emails, and even dating. Some people even forged Musk's Twitter to launch a campaign of giving away as much as you deposit to conduct Bitcoin fraud. A German man lost more than 400,000 euros because of this.