[2019-01-06] US Secret Service says exchange CEO laundered money...

[CryptoPressAssociation]

US Secret Service says exchange CEO was involved in large cryptocurrency money laundering operation - now he's under arrest, and coming America...

Nistor Vlad Călin is the CEO of 'Coinflux' which is Romania's largest exchange. But after being arrested in Romania 3 weeks ago on a warrant from the US for money laundering, fraud, and organized crime - his business assets are frozen and he's on his way to America to face trial.

The charges stem from an investigation within the US Secret Service, which many associate only with guarding politicians - however they also participate regularly in investigations of financial crimes like counterfeit money and money laundering.

In the meantime, CoinFlux which boasted 18,000+ users has halted all activity leaving their legitimate user's funds in limbo.  Stating on a blog post:

"Due to a recently started, unexpected investigation, we are in the unpleasant situation of temporarily stopping any digital currency exchanges.

Unfortunately, our company’s bank accounts have been frozen, situation which affects the CoinFlux wallets as well. We are doing all possible efforts, along with our legal advisers, to make sure everyone who had money deposited in CoinFlux wallets gets it back."

Following the arrest of CEO Nistor Vlad Călin he stated his innocence, and that he had no way of knowing his exchange was being used for illegal activity.  It's clear the US government believes this to be false but we haven't heard their evidence to back that up, yet.

Lawyers for Călin immediately began working to stop their client from being extradited to the US, but according to Romanian news outlets those efforts failed and "the decision is final".

While the specifics haven't been released on who's money he is being accused of laundering, the rumors floating around Romanian cryptocurrency forums are that the money originates with scams and fraud being committed within the United States which are then converted to Bitcoin, then back into fiat, using Coinflux to do it.

No trial dates are set yet.
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Author: Mark Pippen
London News Desk

From the Global Crypto Press Association http://www.globalcryptopress.com/2019/01/us-secret-service-says-exchange-ceo-was.html

[pixie85]

This is old news. Their CEO was arrested in the middle of December.
https://www.ccn.com/romania-bitcoin-exchange-coinflux-halts-activities-after-ceos-arrest/

This exchange was so small that it wasn't even listed on coinmarketcap. They had no volume so he wasn't laundering a lot of money. Why are they going after a small fry like this?

[rodskee]

Oh how sad this news is another bad news from crypto
I but believe after the trial the ceo is acquitted because digital money is anonymous
How to show at the court the ecvidence he committed a crime against the law

[squatter]

This exchange was so small that it wasn't even listed on coinmarketcap. They had no volume so he wasn't laundering a lot of money. Why are they going after a small fry like this?

Maybe he's a pawn in a larger game; the DOJ is alleging organized crime connections. Obviously, the details are scarce here and nobody really knows what's going on. It sounds like it goes a lot deeper than merely operating a low-volume exchange and skimping on AML/KYC:

In its request, the U.S. Justice Department has accused him of running a fraud scheme, committing computer fraud, leading an organized crime group and money laundering.

$3.68 million annual turnover is pretty paltry, but if the entire exchange was a front for an illegal operation, maybe it was enough to get their attention.

[CryptoPressAssociation]

This is old news. Their CEO was arrested in the middle of December.
https://www.ccn.com/romania-bitcoin-exchange-coinflux-halts-activities-after-ceos-arrest/

This exchange was so small that it wasn't even listed on coinmarketcap. They had no volume so he wasn't laundering a lot of money. Why are they going after a small fry like this?

The update in what I posed is that is his appeals not to be extradited to the US failed and he is definitely being sent there (which was decided 2 days ago, that CCN article is from Dec 15th still has him described as "currently fighting extradition to the United States" )

[Kakmakr]

This is old news. Their CEO was arrested in the middle of December.
https://www.ccn.com/romania-bitcoin-exchange-coinflux-halts-activities-after-ceos-arrest/

This exchange was so small that it wasn't even listed on coinmarketcap. They had no volume so he wasn't laundering a lot of money. Why are they going after a small fry like this?

They know the litigation process will be faster and easier with smaller companies and they have a extradition option for Romania. They need to make a statement that you are not exempt from being prosecuted, if you are not residing in the USA and the easiest way to do that, is to go after the smaller fry like this.

I think the CEO might have known about this, but he just ignored it, because he thought that he was not part of the scams and the criminal actions and they only used his platform as normal exchange users. <It will be difficult to prove this in court> 

[btyco]

They are simply trying to set an example by picking on the small guy. Why don't they make themselves more useful by going after the malware creators instead. When one exchange closes another one opens so this won't achieve much