A district judge has ordered a bitcoin Ponzi operator to be arrested and imprisoned after he ignored multiple court orders and failed to pay the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) $40 million. He pleaded guilty to securities fraud in 2015.
Bitcoin Ponzi Operator Faces Imprisonment After Failing to Pay SEC
Judge Amos L. Mazzant of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas said earlier this week that a bitcoin Ponzi operator will be arrested and imprisoned for civil contempt unless he immediately provides overdue documents and payments, Bloomberg reported.
Trendon Shavers, a resident of McKinney, Texas, owes the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) more than $40 million after pleading guilty in September 2015 to one count of securities fraud. However, he has repeatedly disregarded court orders, Judge Mazzant said, adding:
Shavers’s flagrant disregard for the court’s orders on multiple occasions leads to only one conclusion: Shavers will only comply with the court’s orders if he is incarcerated.
The SEC charged Shavers and his company, Bitcoin Savings and Trust (BTCST), in July 2013 for running a bitcoin Ponzi scheme. According to the authorities, he defrauded investors out of at least 764,000 BTC.
The SEC obtained a ruling against him in September 2014. The regulator said at the time:
The court’s judgment requires Shavers and BTCST to pay more than $40 million in disgorgement and prejudgment interest, and orders each…
