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Silk Road Seller Pleads Guilty to Money Laundering $19 Million With Bitcoin
Brian Haney, a former narcotics trafficker, pled guilty to charges that he laundered million in bitcoin on Silk Road.
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DIY Bitcoin ATM Money Launderer Pleads Guilty
A man who created his own Bitcoin ATM has pleaded guilty of money laundering and related crimes. Kunal Kalra, a resident of Westwood, California, used his machine and other means to clean as much as million between 2015 and 2017.
Court documents claim that Kalra also exchanged Bitcoin for cash with a range of criminals. Amongst these are thought to be dark net drug dealers.
Bitcoin ATM Launderer Pleads Guilty of Operating an Unlicensed Money Transmitting Business
According to a report in TheNextWeb, the California-based Kalra goes by a few aliases. These include “kumar”, “shecklemayne”, and “coinman”.
Court documents reported by the publication state that his high value cash for Bitcoin trades constituted the operation of an unlicensed money transmitting business.
Kalra is thought only have only accepted transactions of more than ,000 but would ask few, if any, questions about where the money had come from. The filings state that Kalra’s business was active between May 2015 and October 2017.
![](https://www.newsbtc.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/crypto-canada-bitcoin-atm.jpg)
Bitcoin ATMs are springing up around the world.
With private clients, Kalra offered these high value cash for Bitcoin trades with scant background checks. We know this because during one of the many sting traps Kalra has fallen into he was even told that the money was involved in drug trafficking. On that occasion, in 2017, an undercover agent asked to exchange 0,000 of drug money into Bitcoin. He agreed to the deal.
As part of the money transmitting business, Kalra had a Bitcoin ATM that he reportedly made himself. The machine featured no know-your-customer or anti-money laundering checks. Kalra profited just as any other Bitcoin ATM operator would – by charging a commission.
The California man pleaded guilty to running an unlicensed money transmitting business. He also stated that he knew that many of the trades he facilitated involved the drug money of dark web dealers. He has yet to be sentenced but may face up to a maximum of life in prison.
As part of his operation, Kalra is thought to have used bank accounts in other people’s names, some of them fake business accounts. These provided him enough obscurity to launder money out of the gaze of law enforcement, for a time at least.
The court documents state that 9,000 in cash and 54.3 Bitcoin have been seized from Kalra, as well as a scattering of other crypto assets.
Given their instant Bitcoin-for-cash functionality, Bitcoin ATMs appear to have been a rather popular means of cleaning money for criminals. Earlier this year, NewsBTC reported on a ring of Spanish and South American drug traffickers using a machine in Madrid to clean money involved with the international cocaine trade. This prompted the police in Spain to call upon the European Union to overhaul its money laundering regulations to make them more suitable for an ever-digitising economy.
Related Reading: Are Bitcoin ATMs Driving Adoption, Criminality, or Consumerism?
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ChemsUSA Pleads Guilty to Bitcoin-Enabled Dark Web Opioid Conspiracy
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AriseBank CEO Pleads Guilty to $4.2 Million Securities Fraud Involving ICO
Jared Rice, former AriseBank CEO, pleaded guilty to securities fraud and could face as much as 20 years in prison.
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n After admitting to deceiving investors, the CEO of AriseBank will likely now face up to 20 years in prisonn
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20-Year Old Hacker Pleads Guilty to $5 Million Cryptocurrency Theft
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LocalBitcoins Seller Pleads Guilty to Operating Unlicensed Business
A LocalBitcoins seller pleaded guilty of operating an illegal money transfer business in a Southern California federal court earlier today.
The defendant admitted to buying thousands of Bitcoin over a 16-month period and selling them through the popular peer-to-peer marketplace without the correct licence to do so.
Bitcoin Dealer Agrees to Forfeit Over 0,000
According to a news release from the Southern California Department of Justice, a San Diego man has pleaded guilty of operating an unlicensed money transmitting service today.
Jacob Burrell Campos admitted to illegally selling hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of Bitcoin without taking necessary precautions to abide by federal financial regulations.
Campos had used the platform LocalBitcoins to advertise his operation.
According to the news release, at first he was buying the Bitcoin from a “U.S.-based, regulated exchange” and then selling them privately at a 5% premium. He would accept a range of payments including: cash, ATM deposits, and MoneyGram transfers and often communicated trades via email or SMS.
Shortly after setting up shop his initial account was shut down following a “large number of suspicious transactions”. This prompted him to move to a Hong Kong-based exchange. The report indicates that this account was used to buy .29 million BTC over a series of several transactions.
During the period between January 2015 and April 2016 Burrell is thought to have served over 1,000 independent customers sourced from LocalBitcoins. However, federal law requires money transmitting businesses of this size be registered with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) of the U.S. Department of Treasury and operate according to know-your-customer and anti-money laundering regulations. The San Diego man’s operation was compliant with neither of these regulations.
Finally, the 21-year-old also admitted to being involved in a dollar smuggling operation. The combined effort of this are thought to have resulted in over million crossing the Mexico – America border between late 2016 and early 2018. The group are thought to have been arranging the transfer of amounts just under the ,000 reporting requirement.
In the plea agreement, Campos states that he is willing to forfeit 3,357 to the U.S. government. He could also receive up to five years in jail for his crimes or a 0,000 fine. The 21-year-old will be sentenced on February 19.
U.S. Attorney Adam Braverman added:
“Unlicensed money transmitting businesses, especially those operating at or near the border, pose a serious threat to the integrity of the U.S. banking system, and provide an ‘open door’ for criminals to utilize such businesses to launder the proceeds of their illicit activities.”
Featured image from Shutterstock.
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New York Man Pleads Guilty to $1.8 Million Ether Robbery
Louis Meza admitted to kidnapping and stealing .8 million in ether as part of a plea deal. He may be sentenced to 10 years in prison as a result.
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