U.S. legislation enforcement has seized 18 cryptocurrency ATMs that had been bought utilizing fraudulent loans from the Small Enterprise Administration (SBA) meant to help small companies financially harmed by the Covid-19 pandemic. The loans had been additionally used to buy bitcoin from a New York-based cryptocurrency alternate, stated the U.S. Division of Justice (DOJ).
Coindawg’s Crypto ATMs Seized
The U.S. Division of Justice (DOJ) introduced on Thursday that Charles Riley Fixed, aka Chuck Fixed, has been arrested “for costs in reference to a scheme to steal and launder over $1 million in fraudulently obtained loans from the Small Enterprise Administration (SBA), together with the usage of fraud proceeds to buy cryptocurrency ATMs.” The Justice Division detailed:
Legislation enforcement brokers seized, amongst different issues, 18 cryptocurrency ATMs in Texas and Oklahoma that Fixed bought with fraud proceeds to start out a cryptocurrency ATM enterprise named ‘Coindawg LLC,’ in addition to Coindawg’s web site.
The DOJ defined that Fixed and his co-conspirators created pretend identities and companies to acquire seven Financial Harm Catastrophe Loans from the SBA starting within the fall of 2020. The funds had been meant to help small companies financially harmed by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Fixed used about $700,000 of the fraudulently obtained SBA loans to buy bitcoin (BTC) from a cryptocurrency alternate headquartered in New York Metropolis, the DOJ additional famous.
The Division of Justice continued:
To this point, Coindawg has exchanged over $3,000,000 value of cryptocurrency and charged 15% in transaction charges.
Fixed, 54, of Allen, Texas, has been charged with one rely of conspiracy to commit cash laundering, one rely of theft of public cash, and one rely of interstate receipt of stolen cash. If convicted, he faces a most sentence of 20 years in jail for conspiracy to commit cash laundering and 10 years every for theft of public cash and interstate receipt of stolen cash.
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