A Father And Son Got Sentenced For Laundering Cash With BTC

A father and son duo got sentenced for laundering cash with Bitcoin and conspiracy to manufacture marijuana so let’s find out more today in our latest Bitcoin news.

The father and son duo were convicted of laundering over $100,000 from sales using BTC and the dark web. The unlicensed company created hash oil and other marijuana products so the Department of Justice announced the sentencing of the father and son from Washington, to five years in prison after being charged with operating an illegal marijuana business and using BTC to launder money. The DOJ charged the pair after an investigation by the Department of Homeland Security and the DEA in 2020. Kenneth Warren Rule, 28, was sentenced to five years for alleged money laundering and conspiring to distribute marijuana while his father, Kenneth John Rule, 47 was sentenced to five years in prison for conspiracy to manufacture and distribute marijuana.

Father and son sentenced to prison for money laundering and illegal marijuana business -Pair chose to defy state marijuana licensing scheme and laundered over one hundred thousand dollars from sales using bitcoin and dark web https://t.co/oWr4GmP2wp pic.twitter.com/A5lHsvyk26

— WDWAnews (@WDWAnews) May 31, 2022

According to the DOJ, Kenneth Warren agreed to exchange BTC for cash and offered advice on using digital currency to hide the funds. Rhule exchanged $142,000 worth of BTC for cash with agents that were posing as human traffickers that wander to launder money. At the time of the arrest, Bitcoin was trading at $7,950 per coin, back in March 2020. at the same time, the DOJ said the pair operated an unlicensed product business and used cash and crypto to sell to customers nationwide. The DOJ added that the operation grossed up to $13 million with a net profit of $2.5 million. US Attorney Nick Brown added:

“Not only did this pair produce and distribute marijuana products on the dark web, in violation of the state’s regulatory scheme, they also illegally laundered immense amounts of Bitcoin that their enterprise earned. When law enforcement moved in, there were more than a dozen firearms – some loaded and ready to be used to protect their drug trade.”

Bitcoin’s use in crime continued to be a stick that regulators used to beat back the mainstream adoption of digital currency and we also saw the 25-year-old Rhode Island trader Jeremy Spence, who got sentenced to 42 months in prison for running a Ponzi-like crypto investment scheme.