The operator of Online Trading brands, Blue Bit Banc and Blue Bit Analytics , alongside his co-conspirator and his British binary options company, have been ordered by a US court this week to pay millions in fines, in a victory for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
A default judgment filed on the 23rd of October in the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York has ordered Blake Kantor and his co-conspirator Nathan Mullins, and the relevant companies, to pay $4.6 million in fines.
The judgment resolves the CFTC’s claims that Kantor and Mullins used digital assets to defraud investors. As Finance Magnates reported, last year, Kantor, also known as Bill Gordon, pleaded guilty for his role in defrauding investors out of $2 million in a binary options scam that also involved a crypto fraud scheme to cover up their tracks.
Kantor, Mullins, Blue Bit Banc, Blue Bit Analytics, Ltd., G. Thomas Client Services, and Mercury Cove, Inc. (the defendants) have been slapped with civil monetary penalties, trading bans and more.
Fees and restrictions imposed on the defendants
In particular, defendants Kantor, Mullins, Blue Bit, Analytics, G. Thomas, and Mercury were given permanent trading restrictions. This includes trading on a registered entity or having any commodity interests traded on their behalf.
Furthermore, defendants Kantor, Mullins, Blue Bit, Analytics, G. Thomas, and Mercury have been ordered to pay, jointly and severally, restitution in the amount of $846,405.58.
Kantor has also been ordered to pay disgorgement of $515,759.85, which represents the money he earnt from defrauding investors. Kantor shares a portion of this disgorgement with Relief Defendant Blue Wolf, specifically $463,097.25. Mullins, on the other hand, shall pay disgorgement in the amount of $89,574.4.
Defendants Kantor, Blue Bit, Analytics, G. Thomas and Mercury, shall pay, jointly and severally, a civil monetary penalty in the amount of $2.5 million, and defendant Mullins shall pay a civil monetary penalty in the amount of $300,000.
