The court ruled to detain the operator of the Bitcoin Savings and Trust (BTCST) fraudulent cryptocurrency scheme for failure to pay a fine of $40 million to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
In July 2013, the SEC accused Texas resident Trendon Shavers of creating the Bitcoin Savings and Trust cryptocurrency fraud scheme, with which the offender swindled about 764,000 BTC from investors. In September 2015, Shavers pleaded guilty to securities fraud. The creator of BTCST had to pay the regulator $40 million, as well as an administrative fine of $150,000.
The SEC requested financial documents from Shavers to determine the amount of illegally obtained funds for seizure. The court ordered him to provide documents, but this was not executed, as a result of which the SEC was forced to send new petitions to the court. According to the decision of Judge Amos Mazzant (Amos Mazzant) of the District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Shavers should be arrested for repeatedly ignoring court orders, failing to provide requested documents and non-payment of imposed fines.
The judge noted that the accused did not even appear at the court hearing, thus demonstrating contempt for the court. Therefore, apart from imprisonment, Mazzant sees no other way to force Shavers to comply with court orders.
Last week, a similar situation occurred – the US Department of Justice sued the founder of the cryptocurrency mixer Helix, Larry Harmon, for non-payment of a $60 million fine.
Source: Bits
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