Man faces 25 years behind bars for illegally converting Bitcoin (BTC) into US dollars in money laundering scheme
A New York man faces 25 years in prison after being convicted of running an unlicensed money transfer business as part of a scheme to launder Bitcoin (BTC).
According to a new press release from the US Department of Justice (DOJ), a federal jury convicted Mustafa Goklu of laundering BTC obtained through illegal drug sales.
In July 2018, Goklu made an offer online to buy and convert BTC to cash for a fee under the username “Mustangy.” Undercover federal agents soon responded, building a case against the bad actor by arranging several money exchanges totaling $133,000.
Goklu was arrested in April 2019 after making seven separate transactions with undercover agents, according to the press release.
“The [undercover officer] indicated to the defendant on several occasions that the source of the BTC that the defendant exchanged was drug trafficking and that as part of [undercover officer’s] business. He sold oxycodone, Adderall and marijuana.
The transactions occurred in the defendant’s parked Mercedes-Benz, at a coffee shop in Sunnyside, Queens, and locations in Manhattan. The amounts exchanged in each transaction ranged from approximately $5,000 to $50,000 for a total of $133,000.
During each transaction will [undercover officer] transferred BTC to Goklu’s cryptocurrency wallet, after which the defendant retained a commission fee of seven or eight percent and gave [undercover officer] with the remaining amount in cash.”
Evidence at Goklu’s trial revealed that he also illegally laundered Bitcoin for other entities.
As stated by United States Attorney Breon Peace,
“Defendants offered their customers the opportunity to launder their criminal proceeds, remain anonymous and hide where their Bitcoin came from, so they could continue to engage in drug trafficking and other crimes while avoiding detection by the police.
With today’s sentence, Goklu’s illegal business of converting money from one form to another without the necessary license has been shut down, and the defendant has been convicted of his crimes.”
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