LocalBitcoins trader sentenced to 21-month prison term

BlockworksMay 30, 2019 ⋅ 1 min read

Morgan Rockoons, a LocalBitcoins trader who was arrested in late 2018 for allegedly operating an unlicensed money transmitting business, has been sentenced to 21 months in prison according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California. In March 2019, Rockoons pleaded guilty to operating a Bitcoin exchange without registering with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) of the U.S. Department of Treasury. He also admitted to a Bitcoin land scheme that aimed to defraud individuals by accepting Bitcoin in exchange for parcels of land. Rockoons claimed that his company, Bitcointopia, owned land in Nevada which it would sell for 0.5 per acre. Bitcointopia never owned the land and at least 10 victims of the scheme have been identified in the case.

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