It seems as if American authorities are competing for cryptocurrency related action as the US Attorney for the Western District of New York now boasts about its “first Bitcoin-related case.” On Friday a federal grand jury returned an indictment charging Richard Petix with operating an unlicensed money transmitting business and making materially false statements, and a separate indictment charging Zhe Wang and Kevin Szura with conspiracy to distribute controlled substances, money laundering, money laundering conspiracy, and conducting a monetary transaction in criminally derived property.
“This case demonstrates the ever-growing ways in which the virtual world is intersecting with, and being exploited by, real life crime and criminals,” said U.S. Attorney Hochul. “Those involved in such illicit activities should know that law enforcement is prepared to track them into the deep and dark portions of the web in order to bring criminals to justice.”
“Dismantling the fraudulent financial operations of transnational criminal organizations is critical because these groups can succeed only so long as they can funnel their illicit proceeds freely and without detection,” said J. Michael Kennedy, Acting Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations. “HSI will continue to aggressively target illegally functioning new alternatives to traditional financial institutions that deliberately enable businesses and individuals to further their criminal schemes.”
According to the indictment of Wang and Szura, they purchased approximately $74,000 in bitcoin between March 2015 and March 2016. Wang and Szura used proceeds of drug sales to buy the bitcoin, and then used the bitcoin to buy bulk quantities of drugs from the dark web for further distribution. Wang and Szura mainly dealt with Xanax that they imported from Canada, but also conspired to distribute mollies (MDMA).
According to the complaint, Wang was previously arrested on controlled substance charges in October 2015 during a search where officers seized approximately 2,500 […]
