Crypto exchange owner bags 10-years imprison for aiding scam
2 min readTL;DR Breakdown
- RG Coins crypto platform operator jailed for his role in crypto scam
- 17 other principal officers of the exchange arrested with three still at large
Rossen Iossifov, who operated a Bulgarian crypto exchange, has bagged 10-year in jail after he was found guilty of helping a cybercrime syndicate in laundering money.
The RG Coins crypto exchange platform operator was found guilty of conspiracy to commit racketeering and money laundering in September last year (2020). He was found guilty of that just two weeks after he was sentenced.
In his recent sentence, which was pronounced on Tuesday, the US department of justice found the crypto exchange operator guilty of participating in an elaborate money laundering conspiracy stealing from over 800 US residents worth over $6.5 million.
The Bulgarian national and his accomplice also ran an advert on auction platforms like Craigslist and eBay for luxury items that never existed. The proceeds from these adverts were moved via crypto to their criminal organizations.
Other crimes of Iossifov, RG Coins crypto exchange operator
The Justice Department also punished Iossifov for laundering money for the AOAF, a known cybercrime syndicate based in Eastern Europe. The exchange operator in total moved $5 million in dirty money to pass through the RG Coins platform in exchange for cryptocurrencies.
His crypto platform did not obey any Know Your Customer policy as Iossifov himself earned $184,000 from the proceeds of these money laundering transactions.
RG Coins crypto exchange has 20 principal officers, out of which 17 have been arrested. Iossifov’s sentence was the longest, however, as authorities still hunt for the other actors who are still at large.
Iossifov does not mark as the first crypto exchange operator to be imprisoned for laundering money and abating criminals. Last year, Alexander Vinnik was imprisoned by a court in France for aiding a BTC e-money laundering scam.
