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Louisiana father, son plead guilty to operating illegal bitcoin business
Posted On 21 Apr 2016
Downtown Shreveport, LA as seen from the Bossier City bank of the Red River.
A father and son pleaded guilty Tuesday to funneling money through an unlawful bitcoin operation, said the United States Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Louisiana in a press release.
Randall Bryan Lord, a 58-year-old former Shreveport chiropractor, and his son, Michael Aaron Lord, 29, also of Shreveport, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money servicing business.
According to the guilty plea, from at least 2013 to 2015, the Lords were accepting currency, money orders and MoneyPaks and exchanging those funds for bitcoin. Contrary to law, the men were not registered with FinCeN or licensed by the State of Louisiana to operate as a money service business. They also failed to report the receipt of more than $10,000 in U.S. currency.
Michael Lord also pleaded guilty to one count of drug conspiracy for agreeing to distribute controlled dangerous substances to include alprazolam, which is a Schedule IV controlled substance. The press release said that starting in March 2015, he was involved in a drug conspiracy to distribute alprazolam.
Both men face five years in prison for the conspiracy count, and Michael Lord face a five-year prison sentence for the drug count. The Lords also face three years of supervised release and a $250,000 fine. They are scheduled to be sentenced on August 1, 2016.
Image credit – Shreveport-Bossier Convention and Tourist Bureau (Source: Flickr: Downtown Shreveport, LA) (CC BY 2.0)
It’s a shame. They probably made less than 10$ or about $1000 and go broke and lose everything doing it.