A bitcoin ATM operator has been indicted in New York for running an illegal business “marketed towards individuals engaged in criminal activity.” The district attorney in charge described: “Robert Taylor allegedly went to great lengths to keep his bitcoin kiosk business as secret as possible to attract a clientele that would pay top dollar for anonymity.”
46 Bitcoin ATM operators are charged
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg Jr. announced Wednesday that Robert Taylor has been indicted “for operating an illegal bitcoin ATM business that he marketed towards individuals engaged in criminal activity.”
It states that:
Taylor had bitcoin kiosks at 46 different locations around New York City. These were mostly located in laundry rooms, but also in locations throughout New Jersey and Miami.
Between 2017 and 2018, the 35-year-old “converted more than $5.6 million of his customers’ cash into bitcoin while charging a fee of between 10% and 20%,” the district attorney detailed.
Taylor is charged “with multiple counts of operating an unlicensed money transmission business, criminal tax fraud in the third degree, and offering a false instrument for filing in the first degree.”
Bragg described, “Robert Taylor allegedly went to great lengths to keep his bitcoin kiosk business as secret as possible to attract a clientele that would pay top dollar for anonymity,” elaborating:
The proliferation of cryptocurrency like bitcoin continues to draw bad actors looking to avoid law enforcement.
Additional information can be found in the announcement
In total, the search warrants resulted in the recovery of $250,000 in cash from Taylor’s apartment, as well as 20 bitcoin ATMs containing $44,000 in cash.
Forensic analysis showed that more than $5.6 million in cash was deposited into Taylor’s bitcoin ATMs between September 2017 and November 2018. More than $590,000 in fees were collected and approximately $160,000 were deposited into Taylor’s personal bank accounts.
Taylor reported an income of $3,000 in 2017 and $140,000 in 2018 taxes.
Additionally, the New York State Department of Financial Services did not issue a license for money transmission or virtual currency business (Bitlicense), to his company. It is also not licensed by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).
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