The U.S. government intends to intervene in a lawsuit by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) against alleged crypto fraudster Jon Barry Thompson. 

According to a report by Finance Magnates, the intervention was made public on Nov. 19, following the government’s filing of a set of documents with the New York Southern District court. Thompson, who has been accused of operating a bitcoin scam and charged with commodities and wire fraud, is in the midst of a lawsuit by the CFTC.

According to the filing, the government’s intervention into the CFTC lawsuit is to prevent interference with a parallel case involving Thompson, United States v. Jon Barry Thompson, 19 Cr. 698. 

The filing states, 

If this case were to proceed, there would be a risk of significant interference with the Criminal Case.

It continues, 

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.

In 2018, Thompson allegedly induced two victims to send “roughly $7 million” to fund the false purchase of bitcoin through his companies Volantis Escrow Platform LLC and Volantis Market Making LLC. 

Featured Image Credit: Photo via Pixabay.com