California resident Hugo Sergio Mejia was sentenced to 36 months in federal prison for running an unlicensed cryptocurrency exchange.
According to the US Department of Justice indictment, from May 2018 to September 2020, Hugo Sergio Mejia provided exchange services for bitcoin and other crypto assets. He also laundered drug money. In total, $ 13 million in digital assets were exchanged.
Mejia has not registered its service with the US Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). To disguise illegal activity, he established the bogus companies Worldwide Secure Communications LLC, World Secure Data, and The HODL Group LLC.
According to Bitcoin.com, the court ruled to confiscate from the accused $ 233,987 in cash and $ 95,587 in cryptocurrencies seized during the search. Mejia was arrested in January this year, and in July he pleaded guilty to one count of running an unlicensed business and one count of money laundering.
Law enforcement agencies around the world detect cryptocurrency crimes on a monthly basis. In early November, the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) announced that the Silk Road administrator, sentenced to 5 years in prison, would pay a $ 667,000 fine.
Additionally, in September, crypto hedge fund organizer Virgil Capital was sentenced to 7 years in prison. In the same month, a US citizen received 11 years in prison for laundering money stolen by North Korean hackers through banks and cryptocurrency exchanges.
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