The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC ) has settled charges with Glenn Olson for his role in binary options fraud and ordered him to pay over a million dollars, combining the disgorgement of the ill-gotten funds and payment for restitution, the regulator announced on Tuesday.
Olson, who was associated with Blue Bit Banc and Blue Bit Analytics , dupped United States-based investors, selling binary options between April 2014 and March 2018. He even used alias names and supervised other staff at Blue Bit’s Manhattan office to continue the fraud.
A Multi-Million Dollar Binary Fraud
Then a New York resident, Olson even admitted that he knowingly made false statements and omitted other factual materials to trap potential clients in the fraudulent scheme. Furthermore, he converted the Blue Bit account holdings of many customers into a worthless cryptocurrency called ATM Coin.
The CFTC moved against binary frauds in 2019 and named two other individual perpetrators and four entities, including Blue Bit Banc and Blue Bit Analytics, in a court order, which ordered them to pay a total of around $4.25 million.
The regulator detailed that the fraudulent scheme defrauded at least 27 victims, who lost a total of $846,405. However, the settlement order wants Olson to disgorge $241,070 from his ill-gotten proceeds and an additional $846,405 as restitution, which will be shared with other perpetrators. An additional cease and desist order was issued against him.
Despite the order, the regulator is skeptical about the money it will receive to refund the victims of the scheme.
“The CFTC cautions victims that restitution orders may not result in the recovery of money lost, because wrongdoers may not have sufficient funds or assets,” the official announcement stated. “The CFTC will continue to fight vigorously for the protection of customers and to ensure the wrongdoers are held accountable.”
