U.S. COURT ORDERS BRITON TO PAY $571M OVER BITCOIN FRAUD

A US court ordered a British man to pay more than $571 million for operating a fraudulent bitcoin trading scheme, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) said.

The March 2 order by the US District Court for the Southern District of New York stems from an investigation into a website used by Benjamin Reynolds, purportedly of Manchester, to solicit bitcoins from customers with a promise of guaranteed profits, the CFTC said in a statement.

Interest in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies has swelled after Tesla announced it was accepting bitcoins as payment for its electric cars.

However, US Federal Reserve Bank chief Jerome Powell dismissed cryptocurrencies as having no intrinsic value and is not backed by any monetary authority or supported by any government, making them highly speculative vehicles.

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