The latest news of cryptocurrency being used as an illicit activity involves drugs and 59 Bitcoins worth about $2.3 million.
As reported, in March 2019 darknet club drug kingpin, 25-year-old Binh Thanh Le of Brockton, had $200,000 worth of Bitcoins in his electronic wallet which was seized by a sting operation by the Federal Government.
He had earned those bitcoins through “EastSideHigh” which is the illegal marketplace on the Wall Street Market on the darknet.
He also had $114,680 in cash and $42,390 from the sale of his grey 2018 BMW M3 in addition to the 59 Bitcoins.
Steven McCall and Allante Pires, both of Brockton, were accused in June 2019 of conspiring to produce and distribute the drugs alongside Le. During the investigation, authorities seized more than 20 kgs (44 pounds) of ecstasy, more than 7 kgs (15.44 pounds) of ketamine, and more than 10,000 generic Xanax tablets.
While McCall and Pires have pleaded not guilty to the accusations, Judge Rya Zobel of the federal court in Boston ordered Le to serve eight years in federal prison followed by three years of supervised release.
“This sentence sends a clear message to Dark Web criminals, the federal government is entering this space. We will find you and you will be held accountable,” said Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Rachael Rollins in a statement.
The largest crypto fraud scheme ever charged criminally in the US by BitConnect had the crypto space stunned for a while. It raised a lot of disputatious conversations. In the given case, investors were fraudulently enticed to invest over $2 billion. After confiscating the fraud cryptocurrency, the Dept. of Justice (DOJ) had that it will sell $56 million in seized cryptocurrency to pay Bitconnect fraud victims.
