73-year-old man charged in $2.4m crypto money laundering scam

A man from Montana was found guilty of conspiracy to whiten more than $ 2.4 million thanks to a cryptocurrency, the American lawyer’s office for the Texas District.

Randall V. Rule, 73, formerly of Kalispell, Montana, was found guilty On all the counts following a three -day trial before the American district judge Jeremy D. Kernodle on February 26.

He was charged alongside Gregory C. Nysewander, formerly of Irmo, in South Carolina, in a federal indictment in 2022.

Romance, real estate and fraud by email

Prosecutors said Rule and Nysewander helped convert the funds of scams – including romantic fraudCompromise by business email and real estate scams-in cryptocurrency, which was then transferred to accounts controlled by foreign and national co-conspirators.

Romance scams involve fraudsters who have friends with the victims under the pretension of a Interest of potential love. These crooks claim to establish personal links to gain the confidence of the victims, then operate them financially.

Crook Also use false websites To encourage victims to provide personal information or send funds. Many of these sites imitate legitimate companies but have minor differences in their URLs.

To escape detection, Rule and Nysewander would have distorted the details of the transactions and mislead the financial institutions and the exchanges of cryptocurrency.

“We will aggressively pursue affairs against crooks and against those who will facilitate their crimes by whitening the criminal product,” said American lawyer Abe McGlothin, Jr.

The American secret services, which investigated the case, credited the prosecution team for protected the country’s financial system.

The rule risks up to 20 years in prison for each accusation of money laundering and up to five years for a conspiracy in order to violate the bank’s secrecy law. His date of determination of the sentence will be fixed following an investigation.