[2016-05-29] news.bitcoin.com-‘Guinea Pig’ Money Laundering Case May Decide...

[wintermeasures]

‘Guinea Pig’ Money Laundering Case May Decide Bitcoin’s Legal Status

Is it possible to be laundering money with Bitcoin if it’s not legally considered money? A court case in Florida may be about to give us an answer.

The by-now infamous case concerns Michel Espinoza, a young computer programmer and early bitcoin trader arrested in January 2014, and later charged with dealing in currency without a money transmitter license and attempted money-laundering.

READ MORE >>> https://news.bitcoin.com/laundering-case-bitcoin-legal-status/

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1714706283

[BurtW]

‘Guinea Pig’ Money Laundering Case May Decide Bitcoin’s Legal Status

Is it possible to be laundering money with Bitcoin if it’s not legally considered money? A court case in Florida may be about to give us an answer.

The by-now infamous case concerns Michel Espinoza, a young computer programmer and early bitcoin trader arrested in January 2014, and later charged with dealing in currency without a money transmitter license and attempted money-laundering.

READ MORE >>> https://news.bitcoin.com/laundering-case-bitcoin-legal-status/

Wow.  My attorney told me that the defense that "Bitcoin is not money" had little or no legal merit.  We had planned to try it anyway if my case had gone to trial.  However, since the criminal charges against me and the separate civil charges against all all my property they seized were dropped and my case never went to trial we never got to try this argument.

It will be very interesting to see how the judge will rule.  Normally they just rule "for the purposes of this trial we will consider Bitcoin [money or a security or property (circle one)] and not try to define what it actually is" and they do not bother to decide the broader definition.

[Bitware]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2013/08/07/federal-judge-rules-bitcoin-is-real-money/

[BurtW]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2013/08/07/federal-judge-rules-bitcoin-is-real-money/

If I recall correctly, in this case the judge ruled that "for the purposes of this trial we will consider Bitcoin a security" thus leaving open the question what Bitcoin really is in the grand scheme of things, the ruling just applied to Trendon's trial.

My attorney expected the judge to rule that "for the purposes of this trial we will consider Bitcoins money" so that trading Bitcoins on localbitcoins.com could be considered "money transmittal", and we can fully expect the judge in this case to do the same.  It would be a great surprise if the judge sided with the defense.  I do not know about this particular judge but most judges are former prosecutors and almost always side with their buddies and former colleagues in the prosecution department.