US gov’t intervenes in CFTC lawsuit against alleged crypto scammer

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The United States government is seeking to intervene in a lawsuit filed against an alleged cryptocurrency fraudster. The lawsuit was filed by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) against Jon Barry Thompson, founder of Volantis Market Maker. In documents filed Tuesday in a New York court, the government states that the CFTC lawsuit could interfere with parallel cases against Thompson.

Thompson founded Volantis, a crypto escrow service that promised its users that it could minimize settlement default risk when purchasing crypto. However, it’s alleged that he was unable to offer this service and this led to the loss of over $7 million for his clients. Consequently, Thompson was charged with commodities and wire fraud. The CFTC later filed a complaint against Thompson for violating commodities laws.

In a new twist, the U.S. government is seeking to intervene in the CFTC lawsuit. As reported by Finance Feeds, the government filed a set of documents on November 18, which became public a day later. The documents, which were filed with the New York Southern District Court, request “an order authorizing intervention by the United States and staying civil proceedings until the conclusion of the parallel criminal case, United States v. Jon Barry Thompson, 19 Cr. 698.”

The government indicated that it believes continuing the lawsuit by the CFTC could result in interference in a parallel case against Thompson. The documents further stated:

A complete stay would prejudice no party to this civil action; would prevent the circumvention of important statutory limitations on criminal discovery and avoid asymmetrical discovery, and would preserve the Court’s resources because many of the issues presented by the civil action will be resolved in the Criminal Case.

As CoinGeek reported, Thompson was charged a month ago with wire and commodities fraud by the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of New York. He is alleged to have received $7 million from two different companies to purchase crypto for them. However, he didn’t deliver the crypto or refund the money, instead lying to his clients over and over again. For his crimes, Thompson could face up to 60 years in prison.