A federal judge in Texas ordered the head of a South African company to pay USD 3.4 billion for what US commodities regulators say is the largest fraud case involving bitcoin.

Cornelius Johannes Steynberg was ordered to pay USD 1.7 billion in compensatory damages to victims of the fraud scheme and another USD 1.7 billion in civil penalties.

“This is a record for a Commodity Futures Trading Commission case,” the regulator said in a statement on Thursday (28/4/2023).

Steynberg, who was last known to live in South Africa, could not immediately be reached for comment.

The CFTC charged Steynberg in July, saying Mirror Trading solicited bitcoin online from thousands of people to purportedly operate commodity pools.

The company claimed it was trading off-exchange, retail foreign currency with participants who were not qualified to trade.

“From May 2018 through March 2021, Steynberg received and misappropriated at least 29,421 bitcoins – worth more than USD 1.7 billion by the end of the period – from approximately 23,000 participants from the US, including more than 1,300 in Texas,” the CFTC said.

The default judgment against Steynberg was granted by Judge Lee Yeakel in the Western District of Texas, according to court filings.