American authorities have indicted the proprietor of crypto buying and selling platform AurumXchange, alleging he funneled funds linked to the notorious Silk Highway market.
Maximiliano Pilipis, a 53-year-old Indiana resident, helped facilitate over $30 million between 2009 and 2013, a portion of which got here from “accounts held on Silk Road,” america Division of Justice stated in an Oct. 28 assertion.
Silk Highway was the primary trendy darknet market that launched in 2011 as an internet black market. The FBI shut it down in 2013, arresting founder Ross Ulbricht, who’s now serving a life sentence for cash laundering, drug distribution, and different fees.
Over 100,000 transactions have been carried out on AurumXchange, which the DOJ claims operated with no license. Through the roughly 4 years of operation, Pilipis managed to accrue over 10,000 Bitcoin in charges, which might have netted him round $1.2 million based mostly on Bitcoin costs on the time.
In line with a earlier report, the trade was registered in Dominica and operated underneath a money-transmitting enterprise referred to as Aurum Capital Holding. Funds acquired from the operation have been break up throughout a number of pockets addresses to “launder and conceal” the proceeds, with some transactions directed in direction of darknet marketplaces.
A portion of the funds was used for actual property investments in Arcadia and Noblesville, Indiana, and the income generated from these investments weren’t reported on a tax return.
The felony investigative department of the Inside Income seized near $10 million from Morgan Stanley accounts managed by Pilipis in January 2024, claiming that he “knew that the property involved in the transactions represented the proceeds of some form of unlawful activity.”
Later that month, a federal grand jury indicted Pilipis on one rely of cash laundering. Following an expanded DOJ investigation, the grand jury not too long ago returned a superseding indictment, including 5 extra counts of cash laundering and two counts of willfully failing to file a tax return.
Upon conviction, Pilipis can be a jail sentence of as much as 10 years and fines as much as $250,000.
Crackdown on crypto cash laundering
Cryptocurrency exchanges have drawn intense scrutiny worldwide attributable to their potential involvement in cash laundering actions. Final month, Swedish authorities coined the time period “professional money launderers” to label sure exchanges that facilitated such actions.
In the meantime, regulatory authorities have ramped up enforcement efforts to curb illicit fund flows by means of these platforms. A number of main crypto exchanges have confronted accusations or investigations associated to cash laundering over time together with the likes of Binance, KuCoin, OKEx, and BitMEX amongst others.
Just lately the Federal Felony Police Workplace in Germany and the Central Workplace for Combating Web Crime shut down 47 crypto exchanges for permitting transactions with out implementing correct anti-money laundering measures.
