Six charged with operating unlicensed cryptocurrency exchange business in New Hampshire

Hacks • March 18, 2021, 2:56PM EDT
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Six people from New Hampshire were charged Tuesday with operating an unregistered cryptocurrency exchange business, according to a statement from the United States Department of Justice (DOJ). 

The charged individuals are Aria DiMezzo, 34; Colleen Fordham, 60; Ian Freeman, 40; Nobody (formerly Richard Paul), 52; Renee Spinella, 23; and Andrew Spinella, 35. The indictment of the six individuals alleges that they knowingly violated federal anti-money laundering laws by operating the unlicensed fiat-to-cryptocurrency exchange business. 

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Since 2016, more than $10 million allegedly flowed through the business, which charged a fee for transactions. The business operated via websites as well as crypto ATMs based in New Hampshire. 

Some of the individuals, though it’s not clear who based on the DOJ statement, allegedly laundered the funds by making their business appear like a religious organization, receiving charity donations in their bank records. 

The Federal Bureau of Investigations, Internal Revenue Service, Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, and United States Postal Inspection Service are investigating the case.

About Author

MK Manoylov has been a reporter for The Block since 2020 — joining just before bitcoin surpassed $20,000 for the first time. Since then, MK has written nearly 1,000 articles for the publication, covering any and all crypto news but with a penchant toward NFT, metaverse, web3 gaming, funding, crime, hack and crypto ecosystem stories. MK holds a graduate degree from New York University's Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program (SHERP) and has also covered health topics for WebMD and Insider. You can follow MK on X @MManoylov and on LinkedIn.

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