The operator of BitFunder and WeExchange will serve 14 months in prison after defrauding investors and misrepresenting a hack.
CoinDesk
Plea Bargain Means Silk Road 2 Admin Will Likely See No Prison Time
Following the sentencing of Thomas White, the founder of the Silk Road 2 (SR2) marketplace during the first week of April, another SR2 administrator may evade prosecution. According to reports, SR2 admin Blake Benthall cooperated with global law enforcement and may only face fines for avoiding taxes. The news of the two SR2 admins’ sentences further aggrieved Ross Ulbricht’s family who believe there’s a disparity between their son’s double life sentence and others who have seen minimal charges.
Also read: Silk Road 2 Founder Finally Sentenced 5 Years After His Arrest
Five Keys to Inner Strength From Five Years in Prison
October 1, 2018, marked five years since I was imprisoned. My physical surroundings today are ironically similar to what they were after my arrest back in 2013. I’m in the SHU again (Special Housing Unit, aka “the hole”). It means permanent lockdown, separated from the general prison population, in a small cell. There is a slot in the heavy metal door for food trays, a small steel toilet, a concrete bunk with thick rings at four points (I guess that’s how I’ll get strapped down if I go crazy), chipped paint on the walls and floor with gang names and desperate Bible quotes etched in, and everywhere thick marks counting the days spent here by former inhabitants (some collections are terrifyingly large).
Bitcoin Trader Sentenced to Two-Year Prison Term
Bitcoin trader Jacob Burrell Campos was sentenced on April 8, 2019, to serve a two-year prison sentence and to forfeit more than $ 800,000 “for operating an unlicensed money transmitting business.”
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the conclusion of this case on its official website, claiming that Campos had already been in custody without bail for eight months prior to this verdict. He entered a guilty plea in late October, the DOJ stated, “admitting that he operated a Bitcoin exchange without registering with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) of the U.S. Department of Treasury, and without implementing the required anti-money laundering safeguards.”
Crypto-Stealing SIM Swapper Pleads Guilty, Gets 10 Years in Prison
Joel Ortiz, a college student who allegedly stole cryptocurrency worth over $ 5 million, has pleaded guilty and accepted a 10-year prison sentence. Ortiz was arrested last year and accused of hijacking the phone numbers of around 40 people. He is now the first person to be sentenced for the crime, commonly known as SIM swapping.
Also read: Plaintiff in AT&T SIM-Swapping Case Sues ‘Bitcoin Bandit’ for $ 81M
First Case of SIM Swapping Conviction
The 20-year-old from Boston was detained at Los Angeles International Airport in July 2018 while trying to leave for Europe. He is one of several hackers arrested for SIM swapping last year including Xzavyer Narvaez, Nicholas Truglia and Joseph Harris.
Korean Crypto Exchange Executives Fake Trading Volumes, Earn Prison Sentences
Two major executives of Komid, a cryptocurrency exchange platform based in South Korea, have been sentenced to prison, according to a report by local Korean news outlet Blockinpress. The two individuals were convicted of falsifying trading volumes on the exchange. Choi Hyunsuk, CEO of Komid, is one of the indicted individuals. He was given a
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Dark Web Dealer ‘OxyMonster’ Forfeits $700,000 in Crypto with 20-Year Prison Term
US District Judge Robert Scola has imposed a 20-year prison sentence on 36 year-old Gal Vallerius also known as “Oxymonster” on the dark web drug hub Dream Market. In June, CCN reported that the French-Israeli citizen was apprehended by police at Atlanta airport in 2017 while attending the World Beard and Moustache Championship in Austin … Continued
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Ross Ulbricht Marks Fifth Anniversary in Prison
Alleged founder of Silk Road, Ross Ulbricht, marked his fifth year in prison. October 1st, 2013, Mr. Ulbricht began a double life sentence without the possibility of parole for his alleged founding and running of the Silk Road online marketplace. On the occasion of his fifth full year, FreeRoss.org launched a new project to raise awareness of his story and how he might one day be released.
Also read: US Regulator Moves to Sanction Plexcoin’s Lacroix and Paradis-Royer
Ross Ulbricht Is Denied Prison Sentence Review by Supreme Court
The Supreme Court announced on June 28, 2018, that it will not reconsider the conviction or life sentence of Ross Ulbricht, the alleged mastermind behind the darknet site Silk Road. At press time, no reason has been provided for the Court’s decision.
Ulbricht was first arrested in October 2013 at the Glen Park Branch Library in San Francisco. During his trial, prosecutors stated that, at the time, he was speaking online with an undercover FBI agent while running the site through an open laptop under the name “Dread Pirate Roberts.” Among the evidence collected from Ulbricht’s computer were chat logs, journal entries and spreadsheets pertaining to Silk Road financial data between the years 2011 and 2013.
Iceland’s Crypto Mining Theft Mastermind Rearrested after ‘Daring’ Prison Escape
The alleged organizer of a string of computer thefts in Iceland has been arrested in Amsterdam after going on the run from an Icelandic prison. The computers in question were used for cryptocurrency mining operations.
Escaping from prison tends to conjure up images of blueprints tattooed on your body, or perhaps using a teaspoon to slowly tunnel through the ground and eventually crawl out to freedom. For Sindri Thor Stefansson, however, he just had to climb out of a window and walk away.