The Commodity Futures Trading Commission obtained a $2.5 million penalty and judgment by default against a man and his company accused of operating a bitcoin-related Ponzi scheme.
The case against Brooklyn-based Nicholas Gelfman, CEO of Gelfman Blueprint, Inc., marks the conclusion of the agency’s first anti-fraud enforcement action linked to bitcoin, first filed in September 2017.
The agency originally charged Gelfman with operating a Ponzi scheme over a two year period. The charges included making false representations about average monthly gains to solicit more than $600,000 from nearly 80 people, supposedly to invest in a high-frequency commodity pool fund called ...