Florida prosecutors file legal charges against heavy Bitcoin traders
Florida prosecutors file legal charges against heavy Bitcoin traders
Trader moved more than $110,000 without proper licensing, say prosecutors.
Apparently for the first time, state laws are being wielded against heavy Bitcoin traders. Florida prosecutors have charged three men, saying that their use of a site called localbitcoins.com violates laws against unlicensed money transmitters, according to a report in the Krebs on Security blog.
Krebs quotes UC Berkeley researcher Nicholas Weaver as saying he's unaware of any other case where state authorities took legal action against a Bitcoin vendor.
One user, named Michelhack, claimed to have transferred more than 150 bitcoins (around $110,000 in today's value) over the past six months. A law enforcement officer contacted Michelhack and said he wanted to use bitcoins to purchase stolen credit cards online. After one transaction, he set up a much larger deal, converting $30,000 in cash into bitcoins. Now prosecutors say Michelhack is 30-year-old Michell Abner Espinoza, of Miami Beach.
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/02/florida-prosecutors-file-legal-charges-against-heavy-bitcoin-traders/
