The former operator of Coin.mx Bitcoin exchange Anthony Murgio has pleaded guilty to money laundering charges involving a joint FBI and Secret Service investigation of the exchange.
Murgio has pleaded guilty to one count each of conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business, conspiracy to commit bank fraud, and conspiracy to obstruct an examination of a financial institution. The counts could carry a maximum of 30 years in prison.
The plea was announced by U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara.
Coin.mx was operated from 2013 and 2015. The investigation by the FBI and Secret Service found instances of computer hacking, securities and wire fraud, identity theft, illegal internet gambling, and money laundering, prosecutors said.
Murgio allegedly hid the transactions behind several fake fronts, such as a bogus online club for stamp collectors and hobbyists.
“Anthony Murgio took a new-age approach to an age-old crime of fraud,” Bharara said in a press release. “As he admitted in his guilty plea today, Murgio used Coin.mx, an internet-based Bitcoin exchange, to process over $10 million in Bitcoin transactions in violation of federal anti-money laundering laws, and then obstructed a regulatory examination to hide his scheme.”
According to a report by Casino.org, prosecutors believe the exchange was owned by Gery Shalon, an Israeli accused of being behind a cyber-attack on JPMorgan in the summer of 2014. That hack resulted in the largest-ever theft of customer data from a US financial institution.
