CFTC en FTC vervolgen voormalige CEO van Voyager wegens fraude

• The CFTC claims that Ehrlich made several misleading statements about the safety of users’ assets.
• Zowel FTX als Binance.US hadden plannen om Voyager uit te kopen, maar de deals waren niet succesvol.
• The bankruptcy court approved Voyager’s repayment plans in May.

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The Commodities and Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) filed a lawsuit against Stephen Ehrlich, the former CEO of the now-defunct cryptocurrency lender Voyager Digital, on Thursday for deceiving the platform’s users about the security of their holdings. The CFTC also opgeladen Ehrlich met fraude en registratiefouten voor het exploiteren van een niet-geregistreerde grondstoffenpool.

Het agentschap is van plan permanente handels- en registratieverboden, kwijtschelding, restitutie en civielrechtelijke geldboetes na te streven. De commissie schreef in a uitspraak on Thursday that “Ehrlich and Voyager falsely touted the Voyager platform as a “safe haven” to earn high-yield returns to induce customers to purchase and store digital asset commodities.”

Volgens CFTC-handhavingsdirecteur Ian McGinley:

While representing that they would treat customers’ digital asset commodities safely and responsibly, behind the scenes, they took shockingly reckless risks with their customers’ assets, leading to Voyager’s bankruptcy and huge customer losses. When their business began to collapse, they continued lying to their customers, concealing Voyager’s true financial health.

In a parallel action, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it had struck an agreement with Voyager “that will permanently ban it from handling consumers’ assets” and had sued Ehrlich for erroneously claiming that Voyager accounts were “safe” and insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). The proposed settlement will see Voyager and its affiliate pay a $1.65 billion fee.

The charges claim that Ehrlich illegally transferred millions of dollars from Voyager to his wife, Francine, who was listed as a relief defendant in the FTC lawsuit. The focus of both lawsuits was Ehrlich’s misleading statements about Voyager’s financial situation in 2022.

Voyager was een van de opvallende platforms voor crypto-leningen voordat het in de zomer van 2022 instortte. Op zijn hoogtepunt beloofde Voyager klanten winsten tot wel 12% op hun activa.

Voyager filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in July 2022, citing unfavorable market conditions. The case remains unresolved as of this writing. However, the bankruptcy court approved Voyager’s repayment plan in May.

Amerikaanse toezichthouders hebben handhavingsmaatregelen genomen tegen verschillende cryptobedrijven en hun oprichters. De CFTC en FTX hebben lopende zaken tegen crypto-managers zoals de voormalige CEO’s van Celsius en FTX, Alex Mashinsky en Sam Bankman-Fried.

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