LOS ANGELES – A San Bernardino County man was sentenced in the present day to 36 months federal jail for operating an unlicensed enterprise that exchanged no less than $ 13 million for bitcoin and money, typically for drug traffickers.
On account of an investigation by Homeland Safety Investigations (HSI) Los Angeles and the IRS Prison Investigation, Hugo Sergio Mejia, 50, of Ontario was convicted by US District Choose Cormac J. Carney. Mejia pleaded responsible on July 1 of unlicensed cash switch enterprise and cash laundering.
From Could 2018 to September 2020, Mejia operated a digital forex enterprise that exchanged Bitcoin for money and vice versa, and charged commissions for these transactions. Mejia has by no means registered his firm with the Monetary Crimes Enforcement Community, an workplace of the US Treasury Division that collects and analyzes data associated to the struggle in opposition to monetary crime, together with cash laundering.
In the course of the practically 2½-year interval, in response to the settlement settlement, Mejia exchanged no less than $ 13 million.
Mejia additionally shaped corporations to cover its actual actions together with Worldwide Safe Communications LLC, World Safe Information, and The HODL Group LLC. Mejia marketed his enterprise on-line and was referred to clients by means of phrase of mouth, communicated with them through encrypted messaging providers, and met them face-to-face in espresso outlets.
Between Could 2019 and March 2020, Mejia met a number of instances with a shopper who labored with regulation enforcement to change Bitcoin for tens of 1000’s of {dollars} in money. On March 12, 2020, Mejia met with the client in a restaurant in Irvine and facilitated the change of 14,273 Bitcoin for USD 82,150 in money plus charges. Throughout that assembly, the client Mejia introduced that their major buyer was a methamphetamine purchaser in Australia who purchased methamphetamine each 4 to 6 weeks and offered it in Australia for 5 instances the common worth within the US.
Mejia and the shopper, who labored with regulation enforcement, made 5 bitcoin money transactions that cumulatively exceeded $ 250,000.
“[Mejia] knew in regards to the relevant rules for his forex change enterprise and intentionally disregarded them, ”wrote the prosecutors in a judgment memorandum. “That is as a result of [Mejia] structured its forex change enterprise with the intention of making an nameless channel for laundering drug proceeds. “
As a part of his consent type with the federal government, Mejia agreed to forfeit all property ensuing from the unlawful conduct, together with $ 233,987 in money confiscated from Santa Ana and Ontario residences, silver cash and bars, and roughly 95,587 US {dollars} in numerous seized cryptocurrencies.
This case obtained assist from the Costa Mesa Police Division and was being prosecuted by the US Lawyer’s Workplace for the Division of Worldwide Narcotics, Cash Laundering & Extortion, and Central California Property Fall.
HSI is the first investigative arm of the U.S. Division of Homeland Safety (DHS), answerable for investigating cross-border crime and threats, significantly the legal organizations that exploit the worldwide infrastructure that conducts worldwide commerce, journey, and finance.
HSI’s workforce of over 10,400 workers consists of greater than 7,100 specialty brokers stationed in 220 cities throughout the US and 80 abroad areas in 53 nations. HSI’s worldwide presence represents DHS’s largest abroad investigative presence and one of many largest worldwide US regulation enforcement presence.
