A federal court on March 2, 2021, ordered Benjamin Reynolds, CEO of the defunct Control Finance cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme, to pay $571 million in a judgment secured by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. This ruling came despite the CFTC’s initial belief that Reynolds was a fictitious persona, an actor used by the scheme’s operators.

Control Finance launched in 2017, promising high returns on Bitcoin investments. The scheme collapsed that September. Investigators later determined the operation was a classic Ponzi model, relying on new investor funds to pay earlier ones. Its public face, Benjamin Reynolds, was a central figure in the fraud.

The CFTC initiated its enforcement action against Control Finance and Reynolds in June 2019. The agency encountered immediate difficulties serving legal papers to Reynolds, as no legitimate contact information or physical address could be found. Efforts to verify Control Finance's UK incorporation documents also revealed fraudulent details.

This led the CFTC to secure court permission for service via publication, a method typically used when a defendant cannot be located. The agency initially abandoned its case against Control Finance itself in April 2020 after hitting dead ends. Many observers expected the case against Reynolds to follow suit given the challenges.

But the CFTC persisted. The agency requested an Entry of Default against Reynolds, which the court granted. The CFTC then filed for default judgment, leading to the March 2021 ruling.

The court accepted the CFTC’s allegations, finding that Reynolds and Control Finance solicited and misappropriated at least 22,190.542 Bitcoin from more than 1,000 customers worldwide. These funds, valued at approximately $143 million at the time, included investments from at least 169 U.S. residents. Reynolds moved customers' Bitcoin through thousands of complex blockchain transactions, the court noted.

As a result, most, if not all, of Control Finance customers’ invested funds were lost. The scheme paid out only $13,411.17 to investors despite taking in $143 million.

The judgment mandates Reynolds pay $142.9 million in restitution to victims and a civil monetary penalty of $429 million. The court also issued a permanent injunction against Reynolds. These sums bring the total to $571.9 million.

The court order directs Reynolds to pay an appointed Monitor. This Monitor will provide the CFTC's Chief Financial Officer with annual reports detailing the disbursement of funds to victims. This directive poses practical challenges, as the individual known as Benjamin Reynolds was not physically present or directly identified at the time of the judgment.

Just weeks after the judgment, on March 25, 2021, the individual behind the Benjamin Reynolds persona was identified as Karl-Joonatan Mets, an Estonian resident. This identification occurred after the court’s judgment against the previously unconfirmed identity. The default judgment against Reynolds is final, concluding the CFTC’s formal case.