A 22-year-old American Bitcoin dealer sentenced to two years in prison

On Monday, April 8, Jacob Burrell-Campos, a 22-year-old Bitcoin merchant, was sentenced by a US court to "serve a two-year prison sentence and lose $ 823,357 in illegal profits for operated an unlicensed money transfer business in connection with his business ". selling hundreds of thousands of dollars in Bitcoin to more than 1,000 customers across the United States. "

The news was announced in a press release issued by the US Attorney's Office in the Southern District of California. According to the press release, US citizen Jacob Burrell Campos, (officially) residing in Rosarito, Baja California, Mexico, was sentenced yesterday by US District Judge Marilyn L. Huff.

As the CryptoGlobe report last year, August 17, 2018, the US Attorney's Office in the Southern District of California announced in a press release that Jacob had "been sentenced today without bail as a result of indictment on 31 counts of using illegally transmitted money, non-maintenance of anti-money laundering program, international money laundering and the conspiracy to structure monetary transactions. "He had been arrested on August 13, 2018 while attempting to return to Mexico by the United States.

According to Monday's press release, Jacob "has been held without bail since his arrest". Bail was denied as it was considered a flight risk, as the court found that he had close ties with Mexico, three nationalities and no stable employment in the United States.

Jacob pleaded guilty on October 29, 2018, "admitting to having operated a Bitcoin Exchange without registering with the US Treasury Department's Financial Crime Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and without having implemented the required collateral security safeguards." fight against money laundering. "

His plea agreement says Jacob "announced his business on Localbitcoins.com and communicated with his customers via email and SMS, often using encrypted applications." Apparently, he "negotiated a commission 5% higher than the current exchange rate and accepted cash in person, via national cash machines and via MoneyGram". In addition, he appears to have confessed to not having a money laundering (AML) program and not exercising "due diligence at the source of his clients' money".

In addition, it would appear that Jacob further conceded that "at the beginning, he had purchased his supply of Bitcoin through a US-based regulated exchange", but "his account quickly was closed because of the large number of suspicious transactions ", which forced him to" a cryptocurrency exchange in Hong Kong, where he bought for a total amount of $ 3.29 million Bitcoin , in hundreds of separate transactions, between March 2015 and April 2017 ".

Finally, he acknowledged "having exchanged his American money, which he had kept in Mexico, with Joseph Castillo, a San Diego-based precious metals trader, and that between late 2016 and early 2018, he had imported to the United States with others almost daily, a total of more than 1 million US dollars, an amount slightly lower than the reporting requirement of $ 10,000. "

US lawyer Robert Brewer said:

"The federal government will continue to investigate and prosecute all white-collar criminals who refuse to comply with US anti-money-laundering laws and who help others to avoid money laundering." scrutiny of their ill-gotten gains. I salute the excellent work of Attorney Robert Ciaffa and federal agents who have investigated these crimes. "

And David Shaw, San Diego's Special Investigative Officer for Homeland Security, said:

"The conviction of Burrell today is a reminder to unlicensed and unlicensed funders that the laws and rules apply to cryptocurrency transactions as well as other types of financial transactions. HSI Special Agents are proud to work with our law enforcement partners to ensure the integrity of the US financial system. "

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