Bitcoin Fraudsters Misled Investors and Impersonated Regulators, CFTC Alleges

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) filed charges against two defendants for allegedly going to a number of lengths in attempts to steal bitcoin.

The regulator announced late Friday that it was charging two individuals using the names Morgan Hunt and Kim Hecroft for “fraudulent solicitation, impersonation of a CFTC investigator and forging CFTC documents” as part of an elaborate scheme to convince cryptocurrency investors to pay a fake tax in bitcoin to the defendants.

According to a press release, Hunt, who claims to be of Arlington, Texas and may be doing business as Diamonds Trading Investment House, and Hecroft, who claims to be from Baltimore, Maryland and may be doing business as First Options Trading, “engaged in a fraudulent scheme to solicit bitcoin from members of the public.”

Moreover, the two did so “through false or misleading representations or omissions,” according to a release, which include impersonating a CFTC investigator and forging documents with…