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US Indicts Suspected Russian 'Mastermind' of $4 Billion Bitcoin Laundering Scheme (reuters.com)
schwit1 shares a report from Reuters: A U.S. jury indicted a Russian man on Wednesday as the operator of a digital currency exchange he allegedly used to launder more than $4 billion for people involved in crimes ranging from computer hacking to drug trafficking. Alexander Vinnik was arrested in a small beachside village in northern Greece on Tuesday, according to local authorities, following an investigation led by the U.S. Justice Department along with several other federal agencies and task forces. U.S. officials described Vinnik in a Justice Department statement as the operator of BTC-e, an exchange used to trade the digital currency bitcoin since 2011. They alleged Vinnik and his firm "received" more than $4 billion in bitcoin and did substantial business in the United States without following appropriate protocols to protect against money laundering and other crimes. U.S. authorities also linked him to the failure of Mt. Gox, a Japan-based bitcoin exchange that collapsed in 2014 after being hacked. Vinnik "obtained" funds from the hack of Mt. Gox and laundered them through BTC-e and Tradehill, another San Francisco-based exchange he owned, they said in the statement.
You can launder as much crime money as you want if you are a bank.
is BitCoin real now? because if he took "real" money and exchanged it for "nothing" then he defrauded drug kingpins and they will work faster than the Feds.
According to the US gov, its an asset not money. You can buy, sell and trade assets. Buying/selling bitcoins is sort of like stock, you have to note the value when purchased and sold, report the capital gain or loss. So when you buy that cup of coffee with bitcoin be sure to note the value of those coins when purchased/received, the value spent at, and report the gain/loss to the IRS. Actually, your bitcoin client software should be able to do all that for you. I'm sure BTC-e servers are only down while they implement such support for US clients. :-)
FWIW, the argument that bitcoin is an asset not a currency is rational. Its currently too volatile to be a store of value. Although they are a convenient way to transfer money. Buy, transfer, and sell; never hold unless you are a speculator.
Bitcoin is currently only a competitor to PayPal, not the dollar or euro.
How can a US Jury indict someone ?
Surely even in the US indict mean "arrest and charge", so I am not sure how a jury can be involved.
In a trial, yeah sure have a jury, but before a trial ???