A federal jury in the northern California district sentenced the cryptocurrency entrepreneur Rowland Marcus Andrade to fraud and money laundering linked to the sale of a token called AML Bitcoin on Wednesday.
The accusations came from an initial part offering that ARAD made for AML Bitcoin in 2017 and 2018. The first legal deposits covered by Coindesk claimed that anrade, a Texas resident, wrongly told investors that Bitcoin AML tokens – a cryptocurrency that had never been launched and was appointed to resolve the popular Bitcoin.
The conviction marks the conclusion of one of the first and longest cases of “pump-and nump” of cryptography to involve American federal prosecutors.
The Ministry of Justice has appointed the famous lobbyist of DC Jack Abramoff, co-conspirator and pleaded guilty in 2020, paying more than $ 50,000 disgorgement and interest. Abramoff is better known for his involvement in a federal corruption scandal which led to his imprisonment and was represented in the film “Casino Jack.“”
A statement published by the United States Ministry of Justice has accused Andrade of having diverted “more than $ 2 million as a product of the sale of AML Bitcoin” and to use it on “personal expenses, including the purchase of two properties in Texas and two luxury cars”.
According to the press release, Andrade also falsely claimed that Panama Canal Authority was about to allow AML Bitcoin to be used for ships passing through the Panama channel when no agreement of this type existed.
“Frauders often praise new and innovative technology in order to collect funds from investors. But collect funds through lies and false statements is neither new nor innovative. It is illegal, simple and simple,” said the United States prosecutor Patrick D. Robbins. “If you deceive investors to enrich and spend their money on personal expenses, houses and goods, you will be taken into account.”
Andrade should be sentenced in July. According to the DoJ’s press release, “he risks a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for the counting of fraud in wire and 10 years in prison for the money laundering count, and the confiscation of all the goods which are traceable to his fraud by wire and his violations of money laundering, including goods that Arrade bought in Texas.”
