“The indictment alleges the defendants knowingly operated the virtual currency exchange business in violation of federal anti-money laundering laws and regulations. In furtherance of their scheme, the indictment alleges some defendants opened bank accounts in the names of purported religious entities. According to the indictment, some defendants then engaged in substantial efforts to evade detection of their unlawful virtual currency exchange scheme by avoiding answering financial institutions’ questions about the nature of the business and misleading financial institutions….”
The DOJ claims some of the alleged perpetrators had bank accounts in the names of religious entities. The operators of the exchange were trying to evade detection by misleading financial institutions into believing their business was actually a “religious organization receiving charitable contributions.”
Some of those arrested were using aliases. The name of the exchange is still unknown.
