Binary options and crypto fraudster Blake Kantor gets prison sentence
Blake Kantor, who ran Blue Bit Banc and Blue Bit Analytics, was sentenced to 86 months’ imprisonment.
The criminal proceedings against binary options and cryptocurrency fraudster Blake Kantor have come to an end.
Earlier today, in federal court in Central Islip, Kantor, who formerly operated a binary options company known as Blue Bit Banc and Blue Bit Analytics, was sentenced by United States District Judge Sandra J. Feuerstein to 86 months’ imprisonment for operating a scheme to defraud BBB investors, and BBB investors who also invested in a cryptocurrency known as “ATM Coin,” to be followed by three years’ supervised release. Kantor was also ordered to pay restitution of $806,405 to the victims of his crime, forfeiture of $1.5 million, and forfeiture of approximately $153,000 of stolen proceeds. In November 2018, Kantor pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and as part of his plea agreement, he admitted to obstructing the government’s investigation.
As FinanceFeeds has reported, the US Government has sought a sentence of imprisonment for Kantor within the Sentencing Guidelines range of between 70 and 87 months. Today’s sentence is in line with the Government’s arguments.
In March 2014, Kantor established BBB, and from approximately 2014 to 2017, he and others solicited and received approximately $1.5 million from more than 700 investors in BBB’s binary options. Kantor told investors that they could place binary option trades, or a BBB representative could do so for them, and that the predetermined profits promised them would be based on the actual prices of securities, currencies and other investments at particular points in time.
However, Kantor did not inform the investors that a BBB computer software program fraudulently altered data associated with binary options investments, so that the probability of investors earning a profit favored BBB and disadvantaged investors. Kantor also fraudulently persuaded several BBB investors’ to convert their BBB investments into “ATM Coin,” a worthless cryptocurrency that he told investors was worth as much as $600,000.
In October 2017, after FBI agents informed Kantor that they were investigating his involvement in binary options, Kantor directed a co-conspirator to alter BBB customer lists. Around the same time, Kantor deleted emails related to his scheme. When interviewed by the FBI, Kantor falsely stated that he had not been involved in binary options since August 2013.
The defendant blamed his fraud on drug abuse, but the Government argued that the calculated nature and sophistication of his scheme belie that claim. In any event, the fact that Kantor organized this scheme after having served a federal prison sentence for his involvement in drug trafficking conspiracy, is a factor that, according to the Government, supported the imprisonment sentence.
