The regulator alleged that, between September 2017 and November 2019, the platform accepted deposits from customers, but rather than safeguarding those assets, it used them to fund its own operations and to finance withdrawals by other clients.

The companies’ conduct amounted to fraud “because those uses of customers’ assets were not the ‘safe and secure method to buy, sell and store cryptocurrency on the platform’ that was promised to them,” the regulator said.

Now, it has settled with the sole director of those companies, Michael Ongun Gokturk.

In the settlement, the BCSC noted that, while Gokturk “did not misappropriate funds, engage in speculative investments with customers’ funds, or benefit from the…