According to PANews, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) recently announced that the Federal District Court for the Southern District of Florida has issued a final default judgment against Mosaic Exchange Ltd. and its CEO, Sean Michael. The court has ordered them to pay approximately $468,600 in restitution, $61,000 in disgorgement of ill-gotten gains, and a civil penalty of $660,000, totaling over $1.1 million. Additionally, the defendants are permanently banned from registering with the CFTC and participating in markets under its regulation.
The case revealed that between February 2019 and June 2021, the defendants misled clients into investing in Bitcoin and other digital assets through false advertising. They claimed to manage tens of millions of dollars in assets with high profitability, but in reality, the promised returns were not achieved, and some client funds were used for personal expenses.
The CFTC has advised the public to be cautious of commodity pool fraud and recommends verifying the CFTC registration information of companies before investing.