Merchant arrested in the US for intermediating the purchase and sale of bitcoins without a license
A man of 52 years was arrested in Oakland, United States after having operated a business of sale of cryptoactive goods without enough and necessary according to the laws in force in the US.
The subject, named Bradley Anthony Stetkiw, had negotiated more than $ 150,000, for which the authorities decided. Stetkiw uses his account in LocalBitcoins, with the alias SaltandPepper, to offer a mediation of sales to potential customers -activity that is regulated on American soil-, with which they meet in a restaurant in Michigan called Tim Horton.
Through a covert operation that has been in operation since mid-June 2015, federal agents meet with the merchant up to 6 times, and bought more than $ 55,000 in Bitcoin, even contacting overseas sellers. The case was opened in the United States District Court, and the investigation was exposed by Special Agent Bryan Randall.
"From July 2015 to October 2017 inclusive, the defendant, Bradley Anthony Stekiw, exchanged bitcoins in the Bloomfield Hills, Michigan area, primarily using the "LocalBitcoins" website to find customers. And operating under the pseudonym "SaltandPepper", Stekiw bought, sold and negotiated bids for hundreds of thousands of dollars in bitcoins while failing to comply with the registration requirements for money transfer business established in title 31, United States Code. , Section 5330."
-Criminal accusation against Bradley Anthony Stetkiw-
-Homeland Security Investigations-
The subject charged between 5% and 10% commission for carrying out the transactions and operated for a period of time without complying with the registration requirements for money transmission businesses, as established by the accusation against him.
OTHER CASES OF EXCHANGES WITHOUT LICENSE
However, it is not the first LocalBitcoins user who is accused of operating a similar scheme in the United States.
In mid-year, in Detroit, Sal Mansy, pleaded guilty to the charge of operating an unlicensed money services business, through which he allegedly had transacted some $ 2.4 million for two years, until July 2015
Previously, two other cases occurred: Missouri resident Jason Klein pleaded guilty to selling bitcoins to undercover agents on five separate occasions, and also a New York salesman, Richard Petix, pleaded guilty to the same charge after negotiating around $ 200,000 dollars in bitcoins.
In each case, the accusation was based on the absence of permits from the Financial Crimes Control Network (FinCEN), as well as the federal governments to operate a money transmission business.
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