Father and son sentenced for laundering millions in Bitcoin
[ad_1]
A Maryland father and son have been sentenced to prison for their role in dark web drug trafficking and Bitcoin money laundering.
In a case that highlights the complex challenges of digital crime, a father and son from Maryland were arrested. Sentenced for their role in a sophisticated darknet drug trafficking operation and subsequent Bitcoin (BTC) money laundering scheme.
Joseph Farace, 72, was sentenced on January 8 to 19 months in federal prison for assisting his son Ryan Farace, 38, in laundering Bitcoin earned through illegal drug sales. Court documents show that from November 2013 to June 2017, Ryan Farace orchestrated a lucrative darknet operation that generated more than 9,138 Bitcoins through the sale of illegal substances.
In 2020, Ryan Farace orchestrated the transfer of more than 2,874 Bitcoins to a foreign bank account while in prison, using books in the prison library to communicate the recipient’s Bitcoin address to his father.
However, federal investigators intercepted those operations. By February 2021, they had seized all transferred Bitcoins and added an additional 58.7 Bitcoins to the confiscation in May 2021. plea agreementRyan Farace agreed to forfeit 2,957.9 BTC recovered during the investigation.
On January 5, Ryan Farace was sentenced to an additional 54 months in federal prison for continuing criminal activity while incarcerated. Joseph Farace will face two years of supervised release after being sentenced to 19 months in prison.
Money laundering through cryptocurrencies has been a hot topic over the past few years, even more so after heightened conflict over the invasion of Ukraine led regulators to worry that the new asset class could be used to circumvent sanctions. Last month, U.S. senators led by Elizabeth Warren expanded bipartisan support for the Digital Assets Anti-Money Laundering Act to regulate the use of cryptocurrencies.
High-profile cases are not uncommon, and one need not look further than early December 2023 to find examples of this, when Anatoly Legkodymov, co-founder of Russian cryptocurrency exchange Bitzlato ) pleaded guilty to money laundering charges. Still, most U.S. cryptocurrency investigations do not involve money laundering but instead focus on tax issues.
Data from early December 2023 shows that nearly half of cryptocurrency investigations in the United States are tax-related, and the IRS even played a key role in a criminal case that led to the indictment of former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao.
