A Localbitcoins user has been arrested by authorities in the United States after he was caught running an unlicensed crypto service. According to the report, the criminal used Localbitcoins and another exchange, Paxful to facilitate his illegal entity. This latest update is in line with the resolve by the United States DOJ to rid the country of malicious and illegal entities carrying out crypto services.
The Localbitcoins user will pay $250,000 in fine
The criminal in question, Hien Ngoc Vo, who hails from Seattle, has been carrying out the illegal crypto services from his location in Texas. In the report from the DOJ, the Localbitcoins user has already accepted the charges. The charges involved the criminal carrying out his unlicensed activities from March to June 2016. The DOJ statement mentioned that Hien leveraged the services of both exchanges to carry out a brokerage service.
He would ask users to pay up to 30% in every transaction that he carries out for them. The DOJ also mentioned that the criminal made transactions of more than $500,000 in the duration that he carried out the transaction. The statement also said that the Localbitcoins user asked his customers to make payments using a wide range of payment methods, including gift cards from Amazon.
Regulators determined to eliminate illegal crypto merchants
The statement further said that Hien refused to ask his customers about the reasons why they were making the purchase. Customers were also not mandated to submit a means of identification when making their transactions. One can argue that the business passed for an underground crypto service. The DOJ has also said that the Localbitcoins user has pleaded guilty to the charges and would face up to five years in federal prison.
The criminal could also pay a fine of up to $250,000. The incidence of criminal and unlicensed crypto services has been ongoing for a while across the market. Besides those, there have been issues of hackers using underground facilitators to get rid of their stolen cache. This is why regulators and agencies of the government have been working tirelessly to rid the country of such activities. With regulations still in the works, it is only a matter of time before such activities are eliminated from society.
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