A Bitcoin seller was arrested in the US on Friday and charged with 31 offences including international money laundering, operating an illegal digital currency exchange, failing to have an anti-money laundering program in place and structuring transactions.
21-year-old Jacob Campos was a developer at Edge Wallet and a Bitcoin trader who sold Bitcoin in the US for 5% commission. He was a small player with a business that traded $900,000 in total, completed 971 transactions and had 900 customers. According to the indictment, he used US bank accounts to sell Bitcoin on behalf of clients without being registered with FinCEN as a money transmitting business.
According to the indictment, Campos had an account at the digital currency exchange Bitfinex during the time when Bitfinex had a bank account in Taiwan. Wells Fargo, the correspondent of Bitfinex’s former bank in Taiwan, indirectly derisked Bitfinex’s account as the correspondent. Bitfinex is believed to be a New York based digital currency exchange, with a corporate registered office in Hong Kong. Campos opened an account with Bitfinex, according to the indictment, after his account was derisked by Coinbase, another US based digital currency exchange.
Campos is a citizen of three countries and was held without bail after his arrest. His Facebook account is here and his Instagram account is here.