A Los Angeles man, Kunal Kalra has pleaded guilty to a $25 million money-laundering operation. He had exchanged the money in cash and crypto from illegal activities. He did this by using his unlicensed crypto exchange and a Bitcoin ATM.

Kunal Kalra is a 25-year-old man and was also called as “coinman“. He has agreed to plead guilty to 4 charges. Kalra was operating an unlicensed crypto exchange in the US from May 2015 to October 2017. He exchanged fiat currencies into Bitcoin and vice versa and only dealt with high-volume clients. These clients were paying a fee of at least $5,000. The law enforcement also alleges that Kalra did business with criminals including darknet drug dealers. He did not place any anti-money laundering program to facilitate transactions from such clients. Moreover, the defendant even established bank accounts in the names of others, including fake businesses to hide the illegal dealings. He also admitted of operating a Bitcoin ATM to offer crypto-to-fiat exchange service to his clients.

The police authorities have seized nearly $889,000 in cash from Kalra’s bank accounts along with his vehicles. Also, the police confiscated another 54.3 Bitcoins worth around half-a-million dollars. Kalra’s hearing will take place next month. He might face a maximum of one life sentence in federal prison, as per the source.