Bitcoin Dealer Sentenced to Two Years in Prison and Ordered to Forfeit Ill-Gotten Gains
SAN DIEGO – Jacob Burrell Campos of Rosarito, Mexico, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Marilyn L. Huff to serve two years in prison and forfeit $823,357 in illicit profits for operating an unlicensed money transmitting business in connection with his sale of hundreds of thousands of dollars in Bitcoin to over 1,000 customers throughout the United States.
Burrell, a U.S. citizen, has been in custody without bail since his arrest on August 13, 2018. He pleaded guilty on October 29, 2018, admitting that he operated a Bitcoin exchange without registering with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) of the U.S. Department of Treasury, and without implementing the required anti-money laundering safeguards.
According to the plea agreement, Burrell advertised his business on Localbitcoins.com, and communicated with his customers through email and text messages, often using encrypted applications. He negotiated a commission of 5 percent above the prevailing exchange rate, and accepted cash in person, through nationwide ATMs, and through MoneyGram. Burrell admitted that he had no anti-money laundering or “know your customer” program, and performed no due diligence on the source of his customers’ money.
Burrell admitted that, at first, he purchased his supply of Bitcoin through a U.S.-based, regulated exchange, but his account was soon closed because of the large number of suspicious transactions. He then resorted to a cryptocurrency exchange in Hong Kong, where he purchased a total of $3.29 million in Bitcoin, in hundreds of separate transactions, between March 2015 and April 2017.
Read more: https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdca/pr/bitcoin-dealer-sentenced-two-years-prison-and-ordered-forfeit-ill-gotten-gains
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