The Laws Under Which the Defendant was Charged are Not Specific to Cryptocurrency or Online Transactions

While the defendant in this case was charged specifically in relation to his services of converting cash to Bitcoin, the laws under which he was charged have been in the U.S. Code for years. These laws include the Money Laundering Suppression Act of 1994 and the Financial Recordkeeping and Reporting of Currency and Foreign Transactions Act of 1970 (commonly known as the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA)). It is not uncommon for federal authorities to use older laws to pursue charges for novel crimes—even if the laws predate the means by which these crimes are committed.

2. The Defendant Likely Could Have Faced Additional Charges

Based on the facts disclosed in the DOJ’s press release, it appears that the defendant could have potentially faced additional charges. For example, the press release states that the defendant admitted to “converting between $550,000 and $1.5 million” in cash to Bitcoin for purposes of helping his client evade federal detection. Thus, this appears to be a fairly straightforward case of money laundering, and the circumstances appear ripe for conspiracy charges as well.

Under 18 U.S.C. Section 1956, the crime of money laundering is defined as follows:

“Whoever, knowing that the property involved in a financial transaction represents the proceeds of some form of unlawful activity, conducts or attempts to conduct such a financial transaction which in fact involves the proceeds of specified unlawful activity.

For more information visit here https://federal-lawyer.com/federal-authorities-are-targeting-cryptocurrency-schemes/