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A Florida man was sentenced to 5.5 years prison time for his role in a Bitcoin exchange money laundering scheme as well as the hacking of JPMorgan Chase & Co.
Anthony Murgio, 33, of Tampa, pleaded guilty on Jan. 9 to three conspiracy counts, including bank fraud and operating an unlicensed money transmitting business. The sentence was roughly half as long as prosecutors had sought.
Murgio and co-conspirators were accused of processing millions of dollars from 2013 to 2015 into the virtual currency bitcoin through the unlicensed exchange Coin.mx, owned by one Gery Shalon.
Shalon, along with co-accused Ziv Orenstein and Joshua Aaron, were the main players behind the Affactive/Revenuejet family of US-facing online gambling sites, all of which were deemed disreputable by the gaming community.
"Mr. Murgio led an effort based on ambition and greed," and constructed on a "pyramid of lies," U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan in Manhattan said during the sentencing hearing.
"I am wiser today than when the case began, and I am sorry for all the damage I caused to so many people," Murgio said. "Believing what I was doing was OK did not make it OK."
The case is U.S. v. Murgio et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 15-cr-00769.
- Jagajeet Chiba, Gambling911.com
