{"id":81476,"date":"2023-07-09T12:05:54","date_gmt":"2023-07-09T09:05:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=81476"},"modified":"2025-09-11T23:04:17","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T20:04:17","slug":"cftc-charges-two-floridians-in-5-million-bitcoin-fraud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/cftc-charges-two-floridians-in-5-million-bitcoin-fraud\/","title":{"rendered":"CFTC charges two Floridians in $5 million bitcoin fraud"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cftc.gov\/PressRoom\/PressReleases\/8743-23\">has charged<\/a> two residents of Florida with defrauding investors in a scheme totaling more than $5 million.<\/p>\n<p>According to the regulator, in 2018 Philip Reichenthal and Randy Craig Levin organized a fraudulent scheme. They persuaded two separate groups of investors to transfer more than $5.3 million to the first for the purchase of bitcoins from the second.<\/p>\n<p>Philip Reichenthal used his position as a licensed attorney to act as intermediary and guarantor of the deal. He was supposed to hold investors&#8217; funds until they received the bitcoins, but he transferred the assets to Levin.<\/p>\n<p>According to the CFTC, the defendants&#8217; promises were false from the outset. They had no intention of transferring the bitcoins, the agency added.<\/p>\n<p>Reichenthal and Levin were ordered to return the investors&#8217; funds in full. They were also barred from trading on the futures market and from obtaining a CFTC license.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>\n<cite>&#8220;The Commission continues to root out fraud in the digital-asset space. This case is particularly egregious, given that one of the fraudsters was a lawyer and exploited his status,&#8221; said Ian McGinley, head of the CFTC&#8217;s Enforcement Division.<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Earlier, a U.S. district court in New York ordered Ohio resident Michael Ackerman <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/u-s-court-orders-crypto-scammer-to-pay-more-than-50-million\">to pay more than $50 million<\/a> for alleged fraud involving multi-million-dollar investments in cryptocurrency.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier in June, CFTC head Rostin Benham <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/cftc-seeks-expanded-powers-to-oversee-cryptocurrencies\">urged<\/a> the agency to grant it additional powers to oversee digital assets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission has charged two Florida residents with defrauding investors in a scheme totaling more than $5 million.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":81477,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"1","news_style_id":"1","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[879,1246],"class_list":["post-81476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-cftc","tag-scammers"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"9","promo_type":"1","layout_type":"1","short_excerpt":"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81476"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81476\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81478,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81476\/revisions\/81478"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}