Eldon Stone Ross, a 24-year-old male, based in Kennett Square has managed to sale $1.5 million in Bitcoins throughout a course of two years, but only reimbursed $40,000 as money earned as commission.
The fraudulent act has landed the man with a one-year and one-day sentence to federal prison. The verdict was passed on 28th February 2018. With the arrest, US Attorney Bert Glenn went on to state that, “We don’t see many of these cases. It’s the first I’ve done here. If people can go to someone like Ross who is dealing outside the institutional market, it adds to their anonymity.”
Ross himself has confirmed in front of federal agents conducting a Homeland Security Investigation that he has earned a sum of $50,000 form trading Bitcoins. His part of the story was that he merely helped people trade in bitcoins and took commissions. A perfect scheme to run if you are helping in Money Laundering - which is exactly what Ross became convicted of.
Even if Ross was carrying out a legit business, it lacked the legitimacy to get him out of trouble. For starters, Ross didn’t follow the Know-Your-Customer (KYC) norms and failed to obtain any ID from his clients(if there be any!). Secondly, despite dealing in such high amounts, he didn’t bother to report the revenues obtained to the Department of the Treasury. As a consequence, Ross has been convicted as an accomplice to money laundering and has been sentenced to a year and a day in jail.
However, this is not the first time that the young man has gone behind bars. As per the Philadelphia Inquirer, Elden Stone Ross was earlier arrested for drug dealing and did his fair share of time in prison. It has been decided that, after his current sentence is cleared, Ross will be put under three years of supervision from local authorities.