A US Citizen Faces A 5-Year Prison Sentence For Selling Bitcoins Via Localbitcoins “Without A License”

A US citizen is recognized as guilty in Federal court in the conduct “no business license money transfer” using LocalBitcoins.com, reported the Ministry of Justice on 29 October.

In the press release of the Ministry of Justice reported that U.S. citizen, Jacob Burrell Campos, admitted to “the sale of hundreds of thousands of dollars” in bitcoin “more than 1,000 clients” in the United States in the period from January 2015 to April 2016, the year that was identified as the establishment of unregistered “bitcoin exchange”.

Using popular p2p LocalBitcoins.com platform, Burrell has not registered its activity in the Network to combat financial crimes (FinCEN), the authority of the Ministry of Finance of the USA, and also not investigated the origin of clients’ funds, for example, applying measures to combat money laundering, said the Federal court.

It is reported that after placing an ad on LocalBitcoins, Burrell negotiated sales for a 5% Commission on top of the market rate, “often” using encrypted emails or applications to send SMS for communication, accepting cash, ATM or MoneyGram payments for his services.

Burrell also admitted that his account on an unnamed “US-based and regulated” crypto-exchange was closed due to “suspicious” transactions. Then he moved to the Hong Kong platform, through which, according to him, he purchased cryptocurrencies for $ 3.29 million in the period from March 2015 to April 2017, “hundreds” of individual transactions.

The press release also highlights that Burrell admitted to exchanging the dollars he kept in Mexico with a precious metals dealer in San Diego. Burrell admitted that he filed a false tax return, for which he expects a court decision on December 13.

Burrell and accomplices, whose names are not disclosed, each day imported more than $ 1 million at the end of 2016 and at the beginning of this year, in portions of 10 000 to avoid Declaration.

The final verdict will be handed down on February 11, but the defendant has already agreed to the payment of $ 800,000 for the settlement transaction. Burrell faces up to 5 years in prison.