The Federal Court of Arizona satisfied the claim of the US commodity futures (CFTC), filed against the cryptocurrency platform of Debiex. The company will be obliged to pay $ 2.5 million on charges of fraud with digital assets.

Judge Douglas Rayes ruled that Debiex should return $ 2.26 million stolen from customers, and also pay an administrative fine of $ 221,500. The DEBIEX management was unlawfully neglected with CFTC, without responding to the regulator’s requests, Rayes said.

In January 2024, CFTC sued Debiex, accusing the platform employees of cryptocurrency fraud. The company’s employees were looking for a male client, they presented themselves to women and made romantic acquaintances to gain confidence and convince him to invest in the platform, the court said. At least five people were injured, who were contributed to Debiex about $ 2.3 million. Then the creators of the platform assigned this money, CFTC said.

The commission accused the chief defendant Zhang Chang Yana (Zhāng Chéng Yáng) of working for Debiex as a “money mule”, providing his cryptocurrency addresses for the reception of stolen clients. The court granted the CFTC request to make a decision against Zhang, deciding that he controls the address on the OKX cryptocurrency, where client digital assets were sent. The court ordered to transfer the unnamed victim of the crypto activists on Zhang: 5.7 USDT and 63 ETH stabelcoins in the amount of $ 119,500.

“Debiex employees impersonated women, conducted a romantic correspondence with victims and sent photos, claiming that they were successful crypto traders. After receiving cryptocurrencies from customers, Debiex employees sent them false information about the balance of account, trading positions and profits, ”said CFTC.

In December, CFTC reported that she recovered more than $ 17 billion from cryptocurrency companies. The largest reimbursement in the history of CFTC was the settlement of fraud against the bankrupt cryptocurrency of the FTX and its subsidiary Alameda Research.