Pinellas County Man Is The First Person Fined In a Central Bank Digital Currency Case

The United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced on Monday that it has fined a Florida man for his role in a cryptocurrency scam scheme. The CFTC says this is the first time it has imposed a fine on someone for running a cryptocurrency scam scheme.

The CFTC said it fined Michael Terpin $1 million for his involvement in the fraud schemes of Nicholas Gelfman, who was previously sentenced to five years in prison for defrauding investors of more than $600 million through the public company. Its company, Gelfman Blueprint Inc., claims to be developing a payment system called PayCoin. Terpin invested $125,000 in Gelfman's company and lost it all, according to a March 2018 CFTC complaint.

According to the complaint, Terpin emailed employees of Gelfman Blueprint Inc. on March 14, 2014, asked them to stop using his name in connection with their activities as he did not want to be associated with them or their business model after discovering that they were engaged in engage in illegal activities, including exploiting an unregistered securities offering under section 5(a)(1) of the Securities Act and exploiting unregistered remittances