It's reported that, Steynberg scammed people involving a bitcoin trading scheme using his business, Mirror Trading International (MTI) which was proven to be a Ponzi scheme, owing its members tens of billions of rands. The Stellenbosch-head-quartered bitcoin-trading scheme collapsed in December 2020 after it abruptly halted payments to members and its founder and CEO, Johann Steynberg, fled South Africa. Steynberg was labelled a fugitive from South African law enforcement and was nabbed in Brazil in December 2021 on an INTERPOL arrest warrant after a tip-off. It's reported that Steynberg is still awaiting an extradition hearing in Brazil. The United States' Commodity Futures Trading Commission were responsible for bringing the case against MTI and Steynberg in July last year.

On Monday (24 April 2023) Steynberg was fined by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas. The South African businessman has been ordered to pay a $3.4 billion (about R62.5 billion) fine to the victims of his cyber crimes. The fine is set to be split equally between restitution for defrauded victims and a civil monetary penalty. The CFTC said the $1.7-million civil monetary penalty is the highest order in any case before the Commission. Just two days after the US ruling, on 26 April the Western Cape High Court ruled that MTI was an 'unlawful Ponzi scheme' that generated returns for early investors with investments taken from those who joined later.

In the US, Judge Lee Yeakel of the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas said... Steynberg, individually and as the agent of MTI, misappropriated participants' Bitcoin for his personal use. Steynberg also misappropriated the majority of participants' Bitcoin by using the principal deposits of certain participants to pay other participants in the manner of a Ponzi scheme. Lee Yeakel, Judge - United States District Court While the judge who heard the case in the Western Cape's High Court agreed with the judgement made by the US court and said that the business conducted by Steynberg was 'unlawful.' I agree with the applicants that the fraud perpetrated by Steynberg and MTI were not isolated incidences but rather fundamental aspects of the structure of the businesses and as such tainted the business operations of MTI as a whole. Alma de Wet, Acting Judge - Western Cape High Court