WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission has filed civil fraud charges against a New York man and his company over an alleged Bitcoin investment scheme, the agency said in a statement on Thursday.

The CFTC said it had charged Nicholas Gelfman and Gelfman Blueprint Inc with fraud, misappropriation and issuing false account statements and alleging they fraudulently solicited more than $600,000 from some 80 people between 2014 and 2016. The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, it said.