Bitcoin Fog coin mixer operator Roman Sterlingov found guilty in jury trial
Bitcoin Fog coin mixer operator Roman Sterlingov chanced on guilty in jury trial
Sterlingov and his prison professional notion to enchantment the conviction.
Roman Sterlingov has been chanced on guilty by a jury on all costs related to the Bitcoin Fog coin mixer, in step with a US Division of Justice press release.
Sterlingov was charged with conspiracy, sting cash laundering, working an unlicensed cash-transmitting enterprise, and violations of the DC Money Transmitters Act. Collectively, the costs elevate a most of fifty years in reformatory.
Bitcoin Fog was crypto mixer or tumbler that allowed users to hide their transaction trails on the blockchain. The provider operated between October 2011 and April 2021 and moved more than 1.2 million BTC within the future of its lifetime. The amount was worth more than $400 million on the time of the transactions nevertheless is worth over $85 billion at recent costs.
In step with the authorities’s diagnosis of blockchain assignment and records from crypto exchanges, Sterlingov bought millions of bucks in commissions from working the provider.
Sterlingov plans to enchantment
Separate accounts of the trial from Bloomberg described a partial focal point on the provider’s creation. Prosecutors explained how Sterlingov paid for Bitcoin Fog’s domain name and said he looked as if it would test the provider with puny transactions earlier than it began to feature publicly.
Sterlingov denied that he operated the provider in his testimony. He as an different claimed that he created Bitcoin Fog’s domain name on behalf of a consumer whereas freelancing for a marketing and internet agency. He admitted to the usage of Bitcoin Fog nevertheless did no longer find costs from the provider.
His prison professional, Tom Ekeland, added that no eyewitness accounts or server logs provide proof that his shopper operated the provider.
Sterlingov and Ekeland notion to enchantment the . In a press release to Bloomberg, Ekeland called the verdict “disappointing” and described the modern stage of proceedings because the “halfway point.”
In February, the case took a valuable flip when prosecutors introduced the previously convicted Bitfinex hacker Ilya Lichtenstein as a leer against Sterlingov. Lichtenstein testified that he did no longer know or be in contact with Sterlingov today and said he finest minimally used Bitcoin Fog.
Source credit : cryptoslate.com