Bitcoin Exchange Operator Sentenced to Five-and-a-Half Years in Prison

The former operator of the now-defunct bitcoin trade Coin.mx has been sentenced to five-and-a-half years in jail.

The sentencing of Anthony Murgio comes months after he plead guilty to working an unlicensed cash transmission enterprise in January. Murgio, together with alleged co-conspirator Yuri Lebedev, was first arrested and charged in the summer time of 2015. Federal prosecutors later unveiled new expenses in opposition to Murgio in November of that 12 months

Coin.mx was a Florida-based bitcoin trade that federal prosecutors alleged acted as a monetary conduit for the laundered proceeds of on-line prison exercise. The authorities sought as many as 10 years in jail for Murgio, a determine that the protection pushed again in opposition to earlier this month.

Ultimately, US District Judge Alison Nathan opted for a sentencing time period of roughly half that quantity.

Brian Klein of regulation agency Baker Marquart, one of many attorneys who represented Murgio, instructed CoinDesk in an announcement:

“The judge dramatically departed from the government’s requested sentence of over 10 years of prison time. Although we had hoped for an even lower sentence, we are pleased she made such a dramatic departure, and in so doing, we believe she validated points we raised in our sentencing submission and at the hearing today.”

The trade was tied to a broader cybercrime scheme that infamously focused corporations like JPMorgan Chase, ensuing in the theft of knowledge from tens of hundreds of thousands of the financial institution’s clients.

Another factor of the case concerned a New Jersey-based credit score union, which prosecutors argued in court docket was used to transmit cybercrime-related funds abroad. That credit score union was later shut down and its former chief government was charged with aiding Coin.mx in trade for accepting bribes.

According to a report from Bloomberg, a follow-up listening to is ready for 1st September, with Murgio remaining out on bail.

Justice image by way of Shutterstock