The proprietor of a Bulgarian bitcoin alternate has been sentenced to jail in the US for his involvement in a transnational multimillion-dollar on-line public sale fraud scheme that conned over 900 People out of greater than $7m.
After a two-week trial in September 2020, a federal jury in Kentucky discovered Rossen G. Iossifov guilty of 1 rely of conspiracy to commit racketeering and one rely of conspiracy to commit cash laundering. On January 12, US District Court docket Decide Robert E. Weir sentenced 53-year-old Bulgarian native Iossifov to 121 months in jail.
Iossifov owned and managed RG Cash, a cryptocurrency alternate headquartered in Bulgaria’s capital metropolis, Sofia. In accordance with trial proof, Iossifov knowingly and deliberately engaged in enterprise practices designed to each help fraudsters in laundering the proceeds of their fraud and to guard himself from any felony legal responsibility.
A minimum of 5 of Iossifov’s principal purchasers had been Romanian scammers, who belonged to a felony enterprise referred to in court docket data because the Alexandria (Romania) On-line Public sale Fraud (AOAF) Community.
These scammers defrauded a whole bunch of people by posting false commercials to widespread on-line public sale and gross sales web sites, together with Craigslist and eBay, for high-cost items (sometimes automobiles) that didn’t truly exist.
“As soon as victims had been satisfied to ship cost, the conspiracy engaged in a sophisticated cash laundering scheme whereby home associates would settle for sufferer funds, convert these funds to cryptocurrency, and switch proceeds within the type of cryptocurrency to foreign-based cash launderers,” stated the Division of Justice.
“Iossifov was one such foreign-based cash launderer who facilitated this closing step within the scheme.”
Iossifov allowed his felony purchasers to finish cryptocurrency exchanges for money with out asking for any identification or documentation to point out the supply of funds. He additionally gave members of the AOAF Community particular therapy by offering them with extra favorable alternate charges than he supplied to his different clients.
An investigation by regulation enforcement discovered that Iossifov laundered practically $5m in cryptocurrency for 4 of the 5 scammers in fewer than three years. In return, the bitcoin alternate proprietor revamped $184,000.
Iossifov is one in all 17 members of AOAF who’ve been convicted for his or her function on this scheme up to now.
