An American federal court found the creator of Bitcoin Fog, a cryptocurrency mixing service, guilty of aiding in the money laundering of tens of millions of dollars from darknet marketplaces that sold illegal substances.
Roman Sterlingov, 35, was found guilty by a jury on Tuesday of offering a service that scrambled digital tokens to make it more difficult to identify the source of money coming from illicit activity.
More than $400 million in untraceable transactions, including $78 million involving well-known darknet markets, were allegedly processed by Bitcoin Fog, according to prosecutors.
The verdict represents the latest success for the US in its campaign against cryptocurrency offenders following Sam Bankman-Fried, the co-founder of FTX,’s conviction in November.
The most serious allegations against Sterlingov, a Swiss-Russian national who testified in his defense and denied ever running Bitcoin Fog, carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. On July 15, Sterlingov, who has been detained for almost three years, will get his sentence.
During closing statements, prosecutor Catherine Pelker told the jury, “The defendant set up the whole operation to help criminals hide their assets.” Pelker stated that the evidence shows that Sterlingov played an “instrumental” role in the establishment of Bitcoin Fog.
Following almost two days of trial, the jury found Sterlingov guilty of all four counts, which included money laundering, conspiracy to launder money, and two counts of operating an unlicensed money-transferring service.
Prosecutors used Bitcoin Fog to show jurors how the government tracked the movement of cryptocurrency from darknet markets during the trial, which lasted for a month. Additionally, they outlined a series of steps they claim Sterlingov took over ten years ago to pay for the Bitcoin Fog domain name.
Sterlingov stated to the court when testifying that he was unsure if he had registered the Bitcoin Fog domain name and that he doubted he had. Additionally, as reported by Bloomberg, his attorney stated that there was no proof Sterlingov ran Bitcoin Fog.
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