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Thomas Mario Costanzo, a cryptocurrency dealer in the US state of Arizona, was sentenced to serve more than three years in prison after being found guilty of money laundering charges, the US Department of Justice announced (DOJ). [19659002LoscorsomarzoCostanzonotoanchecomeMorpheusTitaniaisstudentthatcolpevoledicecalcidecicloversdeclarationandconditionedrecordedrecoveredonincludingthepromptedonincarcionalandhistoryprovinceproductspropertyforarrestonell'April2017
The investigators said 54- Costanzo, a year, ran an illegal exchange of BTC. The police began investigating Constantius in 2014, after the man announced his operations on a Bitcoin peer-to-peer exchange site. In his announcement, Constantius said he was willing to make cash transactions up to $ 50,000.
The undercover federal agents, posing as heroin and cocaine, were able to infiltrate his operations and helped gather enough evidence to put Costanzo behind bars. The authorities said the agents approached Constantius trying to convert his drug money into BTC. The agents told Costanzo they were involved in drug trafficking and they wanted to exchange their money with BTC, and the man gave them the cryptocurrency. The investigators said that Constantius even encouraged agents to exchange their money for BTC because "it was a great way to limit their exposure to the forces of order," according to the DOJ statement.
In the two years Constantius managed to make his operation work, he received $ 164,700 in cash, the authorities said. This included transactions for $ 107,000 in April 2017 by undercover agents. During the trial, the prosecution produced evidence demonstrating that Constantius used BTC to buy drugs. He also provided BTC to people who wanted to buy drugs from online retailers.
The government also reached a resolution with a third party that provided Costanzo to BTC. According to reports, the third party, Dr.Steinmetz, has agreed to forfeit 30.95149035 BTC and $ 54,000 in cash. The government has agreed not to persecute dr. Steinmetz for its encryption activities. In addition to relinquishing his BTC, Dr. Steinmentz was asked to buy or sell cryptocurrencies only on scholarships recognized by the Finacial Crimes Enforcement Network for the next two years.
