stable coins
By Steven Anderson
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How the Undercover Operation Unfolded. The investigation started well before the arrest. Authorities had been looking into money exchange…
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Charges, Penalties, and the Bank Secrecy Act Problem. Kleiman now faces a single federal charge of murder-for-hire.
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Crypto's Double-Edged Role in Criminal Cases. Cryptocurrency keeps showing up in cases like this one, and it's not hard to see why criminals…
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A Miami arrest. A murder-for-hire plot. And $750,000 moved through cryptocurrency — all allegedly tied to the CEO of a currency exchange business operating near the U.S.
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Marcos Arturo Kleiman Tronllan, the chief executive of Moneyflip LLC, was taken into custody on charges that he hired undercover federal agents to kidnap and kill a Mexican…
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The numbers are hard to ignore. $750,000 total, moved through digital currency.
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Undercover agents made contact with Kleiman back in February. They came in posing as people who needed drug proceeds converted into cryptocurrency — exactly the kind of…
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From there, the undercover agents shifted the story. They told Kleiman they wanted more than a currency swap — they wanted someone dead. A Mexican businessman who owed money.
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Not exactly a clean operation on Kleiman's end.
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Kleiman now faces a single federal charge of murder-for-hire. If convicted, that carries a maximum of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
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Under federal law, any business that deals in convertible virtual currency has to comply with the Bank Secrecy Act.
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Related: Tillis and Gallego Send White House a Crypto Ethics Fix to Unlock 60 Votes
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That's a separate problem from the murder-for-hire charge, and it's probably the part that has other currency exchange operators near the border paying close attention right now.
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The DOJ's broader investigation into cross-border money exchange businesses hasn't wrapped up.
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Cryptocurrency keeps showing up in cases like this one, and it's not hard to see why criminals reach for it. There's a perceived distance from traditional banking.
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