Operator of Illicit Bitcoin Exchange Sentenced to Nearly 6 Years in Jail

Anthony Murgio, the operator of an illicit bitcoin exchange which was suspected of running a money laundering scheme for hackers who were responsible for the breach of JPMorgan Chase & Co, was officially sentenced to five and a half years in prison after pleading guilty to money laundering charges.

On January 9, Attorney Preet Bharara from the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York revealed that Anthony Murgio pled guilty before US District Judge Alison Nathan to money laundering charges and his involvement with Coin.mx, an illicit bitcoin exchange.

Investigators revealed that Murgio and his operating team laundered more than $10 million in illegal bitcoin transactions while conducting other fraudulent financial operations. On top of the initial money laundering charge, Bharara noted that Murgio also pled guilty to “conspiring to obstruct an examination of the Helping Other People Excel Federal Credit Union (“HOPE FCU”) by the National Credit Union Administration (“NCUA”).”

In an official statement, Attorney Bharara said:

“Anthony Murgio took a new age approach to an age-old crime of fraud. As he admitted in his guilty plea today, Murgio used Coin.mx, an internet-based Bitcoin exchange, to process over $10 million in Bitcoin transactions in violation of federal anti-money laundering laws, and then obstructed a regulatory examination to hide his scheme.”

At the time of Murgio’s plea, former members and operators of the illicit bitcoin exchange Coin.mx already had pled guilty to their charges before the US District court and Murgio was the last to plead guilty to all charges related to money laundering and conspiracy.

The official report of the bitcoin and bribery scheme published by the United States Attorney’s Office further emphasized that Murgio and his conspirators deceived banks in order to open accounts and deliberately manipulated the credit and debit card transactions of customers while laundering transactions for criminals.

“In addition to lying to banks to open accounts, MURGIO and his co-conspirators deceived financial institutions by deliberately misidentifying and miscoding Coin.mx customers’ credit and debit card transactions, in violation of bank and credit card company rules and regulations,” read the report from the US Attorney’s Office.

Although the period in which Murgio and his conspirators operated a bitcoin exchange significantly lacked regulatory clarity in regard to the legality of operating a bitcoin and cryptocurrency exchange, the charges against Murgio and the Coin.mx team were in relation to their fraudulent operations involving a data breach against JPMorgan rather than the operation itself.

At the sentencing meeting held earlier this week, Judge Alison Nathan explained that Murgio’s illicit operation and fraudulent trading platform were constructed on a “pyramid of lies.” Considering the emotional and regretful testimony of Murgio and his generosity to his family, Judge Nathan imposed a sentence of five and a half years in jail, which was substantially lower than the recommended term of 10 to 12 years recommended by prosecutors.