The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York entered a default judgment against a U.K. man for operating a fraudulent scheme to solicit bitcoin from members of the public and misappropriating that bitcoin, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) said in a release.

According to the court's March 2 order, Benjamin Reynolds, purportedly of Manchester, England, was  ordered to pay nearly $143 million in restitution to defrauded customers and a civil monetary penalty of $429 million, the CFTC said.Reynolds has also been barred from engaging in conduct that violates the Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC regulations, registering with the CFTC and trading in any CFTC-regulated markets.Between May 2017 and October 2017, Reynolds used a website, social media accounts and email to solicit at least 22,190.542 bitcoin, valued at about $143 million at the time, from more than 1,000 customers worldwide, including at least 169 individuals living in the U.S., according to the release. Among other things, Reynolds falsely represented that his company traded customer bitcoin deposits in virtual currency markets and employed specialized virtual currency traders who generated guaranteed trading profits.The judgment is the result of a 2019 enforcement action brought by the CFTC.