Nevada man confessed to his involvement in the laundering of funds for Bitclub Network. The Bitclub Network is a fraudulent crypto scheme worth $722million. He also pleaded guilty for tax crimes.
Bitclub Network Investor Pleads Guilty
U.S. Department of Justice announced that Gordon Brad Beckstead (57) from Henderson, Nevada, had pleaded guilty to Bitclub Network fraud. Details:
Nevada man admits to laundering money for Bitclub Network. The $722 Million fraudulent cryptocurrency scheme is being run by the Nevadan.
DOJ stated that Bitclub Network was an ill-conceived scheme which ran from April 2014 to December 2019. Matthew Brent Goettsche was arrested in December 2019 as the creator of this scheme. In connection to the scheme, Silviu Catalin balaci, Russ Albert Medlin and Jobadiah Sinclair Weeks were all indicted.
The fraudsters “solicited money from investors in exchange for shares of purported cryptocurrency mining pools and rewarded investors for recruiting new investors into the scheme,” the DOJ described.
Beckstead, an investor in Bitclub Network and a CPA from the past, confessed to conspiring together with Goettsche to launder Bitclub Network funds.
He also aided in the preparation of Goettsche’s fraudulent 2017 and 2018 federal tax returns, allowing him to avoid paying more than $20 million in federal income taxes. The DOJ claims that Beckstead acknowledged knowing that the returns were false because they did not report income from the Bitclub Network in excess of $60 million.
Beckstead pleaded guilty to “one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and one count of aiding in the preparation of a false tax return,” the justice department noted.
The money laundering charge “carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a fine of $500,000, or twice the value of the property involved in the transaction, whichever is greater,” the DOJ clarified, adding that the tax charge “carries a maximum penalty of three years in prison and a fine of $100,000.”
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