$571 million judgment against Control Finance’s Boris CEO
The CFTC has secured a $571 million dollar judgment against Control Finance CEO Benjamin Reynolds.
There’s just one problem… Benjamin Reynolds doesn’t exist.
Control Finance was a Ponzi scheme launched in 2017. It was headed up by the guy on the right, a Russian actor playing “Benjamin Reynolds”.
We’ve had a spate of Russian Boris CEO Ponzi schemes collapse lately; Wiseling and Beurax come to mind.
Whereas I’m not expecting any regulatory action to come of those, the CFTC surprised us by going after Control Finance in June 2019.
Unable to serve Reynolds in person (because he didn’t exist), the CFTC obtained permission to executive service via publication.
Despite the regulator’s best intentions, they soon discovered Control Finance’s UK incorporation data was bogus.
This eventually lead to the CFTC abandoning its case against Control Finance altogether in April 2020.
Having surely realized they were chasing a regulatory black hole into Russia at this point, it was assumed the case against Benjamin Reynolds would also be dropped.
Not so. The CFTC persisted with a request for an Entry of Default against Reynolds.
That was granted, after which the CFTC filed for default judgment.
Default judgment against Reynolds was granted on March 2nd, 2021.
The court accepted the CFTC’s fraud allegations as fact, finding;
During the Relevant Period, Reynolds and Control-Finance ultimately solicited and misappropriated at least 22,190.542 Bitcoin, valued at approximately $143,000,000, from more than 1,000 customers worldwide, including at least 169 who reside within the United States.
Reynolds … misappropriated customers’ Bitcoin through thousands of circuitous blockchain transactions.
As a result, Control-Finance’s customers have lost most if not all of their invested funds.
Just to drive home how successful Control Finance was as a Ponzi, having taken in $143 million, the scammers behind it only paid out $13,411.17.
Needless to say Benjamin Reynolds and the Russians behind Control Finance haven’t been seen since its September 2017 collapse.
Here we are two and a half years later, and the CFTC has secured a permanent injunction against an individual who doesn’t exist.
Alongside the injunction Reynolds has been ordered to pay $142.9 million in restitution, plus a $429 million penalty.
In light of Reynolds not existing, all of this reads like a complete joke. Yet the court order is real and reads like any other judgement.
Reynolds, who again doesn’t exist, has been directed to pay an appointed Monitor.
The Monitor shall provide the Commission at the beginning of each calendar year with a report detailing the disbursement of funds to Defendant’s customers during the previous year.
The Monitor shall transmit this report under a cover letter that identifies the name and docket number of this proceeding to the Chief Financial Officer, Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
So uh yeah. The CFTC thinks unidentified scammers in Russia are going to hand over over half a billion.
Yeah no worries guys, I’m sure the check’s in the mail.
The default judgment against Reynolds is final and brings the CFTC’s case against Control Finance to an end.
Pending any unexpected updates this brings BehindMLM’s coverage of the Control Finance fraud case to a close.
Anyone up for explaining this colossal waste of regulatory and judicial resources?
Update 25th March 2021 – Control Finance CEO Benjamin Reynolds has been outed as Estonian resident Karl-Joonatan Mets.
I honestly can’t get my head around this one…
Oz,
“Benjamin Reynolds” the Control Finance CEO, seems to be: Karl-Joonatan Mets, a professional poker player.
Google: “Karl-Joonatan Mets”
Youtube: youtube.com/watch?v=h3fQErwDWYs
What do you think?
This is such a close call to make. The lighting and mic introduce uncertainty.
Face and voice are similar so put me at 90% convinced.
Karl-Joonatan Mets is a standup comedian so that fits.
This is from 2017:
facebook.com/whatevert.pictures/photos/a.1909431472612880.1073741912.1483800228509342/1909432169279477
The face looks a bit longer and not so round.
Need to hear him speak English to confirm speech patterns.
Mets is also from Estonia. Don’t suppose we have anyone in EU familiar with Estonian accents?
Also: pokkeriprod.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/karl-joonatan-mets.jpg
That’s from 2018. Could just be the lighting but the nose seems wider. Also spots on the face (could just be pimples can’t tell).
I’m using the Control Finance vid as a baseline for comparison.
I agree with you.
Also, “expert eyes” of people who often visit and comment on your page can surely help by providing more details.
Now let’s just hope that YouTube channels: “Jesse Singh”, “The Millionaire Drive” (by Jesse Singh himself) or Rory Singh do not plagiarize your article and reproduce this same news as if they were the source of the news. Plagiarism!
It’s the same guy. If you look at the Control Finance video he has a permanent spot on the right side of his upper nose (as viewed from our perspective).
This spot is visible in every photo of Karl-Joonatan Mets out there showing the same side of his face.
Article up in a bit.
LOL !!!
jokker.s3.amazonaws.com/images/articles/11345/full.jpg