Michael Ackerman, a resident of Alliance, Ohio, has been hit with a permanent injunction by default judgment, as declared by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on June 28. The judgment, handed down by Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, prohibits Ackerman from participating in any trading activities within CFTC-regulated markets and from applying for CFTC registration.
In addition to these restrictions, Ackerman has been ordered to pay $27 million in compensation to those affected by his deceptive digital asset trading operation. He is also required to pay a $27 million civil monetary penalty as a significant financial punishment for his involvement in the fraudulent enterprise.
Ackerman is accused of running a fraudulent enterprise that used fictitious claims to obtain money from individuals and organizations. He allegedly misappropriated the majority of the funds for personal use or to continue the fraudulent trading operation rather than using them for the stated purpose.
The CFTC initiated the investigation on February 11, 2020, after Ackerman was charged with planning a complex fraud that ran from August 2017 to December 2019. The scheme was purportedly designed to raise money for trading digital commodities, but instead, the funds were stolen. It is estimated that around 150 people and organizations gave Ackerman a total of at least $33 million. Shockingly, less than $10 million of the deposited funds were actually used for trading, with the remaining money being unlawfully siphoned for personal use or to keep the fraudulent scheme going.
In a related development, CFTC commissioner, Christy Goldsmith Romero, suggested reducing Bitcoin anonymity during a keynote address at City Week 2023 in London as a strategy to reduce the risks associated with digital assets. Romero emphasized the importance of collaboration between the government and the sector in addressing the appeal of cryptocurrencies for illegal money. She stressed the need to control the risks associated with digital assets to maintain market integrity, national security, and financial stability. Romero also highlighted the need to address the issue of identity verification to reduce the risks associated with criminal funding on the Bitcoin market.
In a separate case, a British hacker named Joseph O’Connor, also known online as PlugwalkJoe, was recently sentenced to five years in jail in the United States for his involvement in the April 2019 SIM swap attack that resulted in the theft of cryptocurrency valued at $794,000.
This News Article was automatically generated by Bob the Bot (AI)
| Information | Details |
|---|---|
| Geography | North America |
| Countries | 🇺🇸 🇬🇧 |
| Sentiment | negative |
| Relevance Score | 1 |
| People | Christy Goldsmith Romero, Naomi Reice Buchwald, Michael Ackerman, Joseph O’Connor |
| Companies | U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Commodity Futures Trading Commission |
| Currencies | Bitcoin |
| Securities | None |
