Coin.mx Execs Arrested for Operating Illegal Bitcoin Exchange

http://www.coindesk.com/coin-mx-arrested-operating-illegal-bitcoin-exchange/


Comments


[5 Points] SafeCash:

For those with whom CoinDesk is uncooperative (tor users) or by whom CoinDesk is not liked, here is the text of the article:

Coin.mx Execs Arrested for Operating Illegal Bitcoin Exchange

Stan Higgins | Published on July 21, 2015 at 23:02 BST

Two operators of the bitcoin exchange service Coin.mx are being charged by US prosecutors for working without a money transmission license.

Anthony Murgio and Yuri Lebedev have been accused of operating Coin.mx in violation of federal anti-money laundering statutes. The charges were unveiled today by the US Attorney's Office of the Southern District of New York.

Murgio was charged with one count of money laundering and one count of willful failure to file a suspicious activity report. Both Murgio and Lebedev were charged with one count of conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business and one count of operating an unlicensed money transmitting business. The case will be held in the Middle District of Florida.

According to a statement from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, which collaborated with the US Secret Service on its investigation of Coin.mx, Murgio and Lebedev were accused of knowingly handling funds tied to bitcoin ransomware attacks.

The agency noted:

"In doing so, Murgio, and his co-conspirators knowingly enabled the criminals responsible for those attacks to receive the proceeds of their crimes, yet, in violation of federal anti-money laundering laws, Murgio never filed any suspicious activity reports regarding any of the transactions."

The operators were accused of unlawfully transmitting hundreds of thousands of dollars overseas.

Federal prosecutors further alleged that, in order to avoid possible regulatory problems, Murgio acquired a New Jersey-based credit union through which Coin.mx conducted its banking activities, making it a "captured bank" for its unlawful actions.

The National Credit Union Administration is said to have uncovered the activity and compelled the unnamed credit union to stop acting as a banking service for Coin.mx. The company allegend then went on to utilize alternative, international payment processing services thereafter.

The Coin.mx website was unavailable at press time. Users reported earlier today that the site was inaccessible.

Link to Wall Street bank hacks

Federal investigators also unveiled charges against four other individuals with connections to Murgio that were involved in a stock pump-and-dump scheme.

Those individuals are said to be involved in high-profile cyberattacks on Wall Street banks including JPMorgan Chase and four others that took place in 2014. At the time, the assailants were able to access JPMorgan's systems and abscond with sensitive customer data before being discovered.

According to Bloomberg News, Murgio was named in a previously undisclosed FBI memo related to the cyberattacks.

CoinDesk is monitoring this developing story and will post updates as information becomes available.

The signed complaint against Murgio can be found below (h/t Ars Techina)

Murgio Complaint Signed


[5 Points] pink_guy:

not surprising at all, they once double charged me and the bank had to deny the 2nd charge


[3 Points] GoOnAndWalkItOut:

So, where do I go now? Where's the best place to buy bitcoin instantly with a credit or debit card?


[2 Points] Redditor_on_LSD:

God damnit...I had no idea. There goes some cash I had in there.


[2 Points] None:

Wow I wonder if that's why I got my last $500 purchase refunded today.


[2 Points] None:

/r/Ooer


[1 Points] CocaineNose:

good!! they are the worst *edit although this isn't really that great of news for people wanting to buy coins anonymously. especially if places are being scrutinized heavily by LE to file SARs and monitor. If i remember correctly coin.mx was pretty strict. you had to take a video of yourself holding your license and credit card or some shit.


[1 Points] None:

So if they weren't shady bastards would they still have been pursued, and as feverishly?


[1 Points] Thoughtsofamaniac:

So should I be concerned that I've used them for quite a while for multiple small transactions (>$100)? I always sent coins to a wallet and then tumbled them before sending to any market so I feel like I should be safe but I still don't want to be asked to be part of a trial or anything.

Idk kinda sucks. The fees were pretty low compared to LBC deals.


[1 Points] thissuckshard21:

soooo I may have pulled some newbie shit last year and sent coins via coin.mx>dnm (no tumble). safe to say im probably flagged now by LE, should I stop ordering physical items all together now? I mean if the feds have the servers and all its content they got all of us who used coin.mx holding up are ID and credit card. are we suppose to just hope coin.mx didnt keep all that info on record. because I think a lot of us are fucked.


[1 Points] wambamdam:

Does anyone know what the chances of recovering a coin.mx wallet are?


[1 Points] baseballdude81:

I thought the site was mexican because it had .mx at the end. I would have been like wtf does a mexican website need to follow US laws for?