Mirror Trading International CEO Johan Steynberg has been sued by the CFTC.

According to the regulator, Mirror Trading International was a $1.7 billion dollar Ponzi scheme.

The CFTC filed their lawsuit against Mirror Trading International and Cornelius Johannes Steynberg (right) on June 30th.

The CFTC have identified “at least 23,000” MTI investors from the US, noting there are even more elsewhere in the world.

Together Mirror Trading International investors handed over 29,421 bitcoin, which at the time of the CFTC’s investigation had a street value of $1.7 billion.

Mirror Trading International had two phases, first there was the
forex bot
and, after that collapsed, a
bitcoin trading bot
.

In reality there was no MTI bot. Steynberg and accomplices Clynton and Cheri Marks (right), who I’ve long suspected are the actual owners of MTI, pork-barrelled investor funds for their own benefit.

Defendants misappropriated, either directly or indirectly, all of the Bitcoin they accepted from pool participants.

In furtherance of the fraudulent scheme, Steynberg, individually and as the agent of MTI, made fraudulent omissions of material facts in solicitations to actual and prospective pool participants, including but not limited to failing to disclose that:

(a) Defendants misappropriated pool funds;

(b) there was no trading “bot” successfully trading on behalf of participants;

(c) no profitable trading in forex or anything else took place on behalf of participants;

(d) “account statements” provided to participants were actually simulated trades from “demo” accounts created via the MetaTrader 4 (“MT4”) electronic trading platform;

(e) purported “returns” paid to some participants were in fact the principal deposits of other participants; and

(f) the online broker Trade300, where Defendants purportedly traded participants’ Bitcoin, was a fictitious entity created by Steynberg to further the fraudulent scheme.

The CFTC puts forth that Steynberg, the Marks and their accomplices have pocketed most of 27,574 bitcoin. A small percentage of the take was used to operate MTI (payments to top recruiters and limited ROI withdrawals).

Defendants failed to deposit 27,574 Bitcoin from participants into the Pool account at FXChoice.

Defendants’ limited trading in the FXChoice Pool account resulted in overall losses, and Defendants misappropriated the remaining 27,574 Bitcoin sent by participants to Defendants for trading, including by failing to use all of the funds for trading and by providing Bitcoin to certain participants as sham “profits” and “bonus” payments in the nature of a “Ponzi” scheme.

By pitching a forex related investment scheme to US residents and failing to register with the CFTC, the regulator alleges MTI and Steynberg violated the Commodity Exchange Act.

After MTI
collapsed
in late 2020, Steynberg
fled South Africa for Brazil
. He left behind a wife and child.

Steynberg was eventually
arrested in January 2022
, on an Interpol int

🤖 Quick Answer

What was Mirror Trading International and why was its CEO sued?
Mirror Trading International was a $1.7 billion Ponzi scheme operated by CEO Johan Steynberg. The CFTC filed a lawsuit in June against Steynberg and accomplices, alleging the company falsely marketed automated trading bots for forex and bitcoin. Over 23,000 US investors lost approximately 29,421 bitcoin collectively.

How did Mirror Trading International defraud its investors?
MTI operated in two phases: initially promoting a forex trading bot, then a bitcoin trading bot after the first collapsed. No actual trading bots existed. Steynberg and accomplices Clynton and Cheri Marks orchestrated the scheme, collecting funds from thousands of investors worldwide under false pretenses of automated algorithmic trading.

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