On Tuesday, the Preston Crown Court handed down jail sentences to the four masterminds behind a massive Bitcoin fraud scheme, BBC reports.
Jordan Kane Robinson, Stephen William Boys, Kelly Caton and James Austin-Beddoes were sentenced to a total of 15 years in prison for fraudulently obtaining and laundering millions of pounds worth of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies from an Australia-based exchange.
The transactions involved up to £21 million in illegal profits and saw large amounts of the funds being laundered through overseas accounts.
The scam was masterminded by British resident James Parker, who passed away in 2021. Parker identified a loophole on a cryptocurrency trading platform that enabled him to fraudulently acquire a substantial amount of crypto.
Parker's accomplices, Robinson and Caton, stole £2.7 million and £1.7 million, respectively.The group worked with Parker's financial adviser, Stephen Boys, who is understood to have coordinated the efforts of overseas actors in order to convert the stolen cryptocurrency into cash, which was then laundered through different accounts based abroad.
A spokesperson for the Crown Prosecution Service has come out in support of this ruling, declaring that many of the illicit gains made by these criminals will be recovered or have already been returned back to the Australian cryptocurrency exchange affected by this scheme.
Gamza Khanzadaev
Tomiwabold Olajide
Godfrey Benjamin