Mark Alexander Hopkins, also known by the nickname ‘Bitcoin Doctor’ or his alias “Rizzn”, has stated that “transacting Bitcoin p2p is a federal crime” tras announce the sentence of his case to his followers on social networks.
In a Twitter thread on Sunday, Hopkins said who were facing between 6 and 15 months in a federal correctional institution in Texas after pleading guilty to allegedly operating a cryptocurrency company without the necessary license. According to Rizzn, the US Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN, used a 2019 interpretation of a law – 18 USC 1960 – originally enacted in 1992 to charge him with illegally operating a “money transfer company.”
“This means that any time someone with a cryptocurrency trades p2p (i.e. not with an exchange), they are legally liable under this statute as currently interpreted,” Rizzn said. “In practice, it’s an all-encompassing law. At first I was suspected of being a kingpin in this particular scam, and when it became clear that I wasn’t, they were able to easily build a case that I hadn’t signed up.” federally before I sell my bitcoins.”
So hey, I’m going offline for an indeterminate amount of time. I’m headed down to Beaumont FCI, where Uncle Sam will be footing the bill for my room and board for the next 6 to 15 months for the crime of selling #bitcoin a few years ago. pic.twitter.com/2VwI2KEZ4N
— FreeRizzn.eth (,) (@rizzn) September 4, 2022
The Bitcoiner, who said that joined the space in 2011, claimed he was “one of hundreds of thousands of OTC merchants” in 2019 involved in the scandal of a person involved in an illegal lottery scheme that the trading group used to launder funds with purchases of Bitcoin (BTC). Rizzn claimed that facilitating currency-to-cryptocurrency conversions on behalf of the party — who they implied was unaware they were being investigated for a crime — turned out to be the goal of US authorities:
“I fully cooperated with the 15 armed FBI agents who raided my home in October 2019. I was unable to find a knowledgeable cryptocurrency attorney after I was raided in 2020 […] I was told that if I pleaded guilty to the 18 USC 1960 indictment, any action against my family would be dropped.”
According to Rizzn, were “fully registered as sellers of Bitcoin with FinCEN”, but the Justice Department was still after them for their involvement in the illicit transactions. Acting U.S. Attorney Prerak Shah said then that Hopkins “ignored federal law and allowed fraudsters to use Bitcoin to operate under the radar of law enforcement” and took no steps to verify the origin of the funds involved in the scams. transactions (between 550,000 and 1.5 million dollars at the time). Rizzn has refuted many of the Justice Department’s claims, stating that they carried out the appropriate “Know Your Customer” and anti-money laundering practices.
“This is what makes it important to pay attention and figure it out: I’m a nobody,” said Rizzn.
“I’m not Ross. I wasn’t on the dark web. I’m not Edward. I didn’t work for the NSA. I’m not Julian. I didn’t spill national secrets. I’m just an ordinary Bitcoiner caught in the crosshairs.”
Before entering prison, the Bitcoiner called for regulatory clarity between the state and federal levels in the US ostensibly in an effort to ensure that other cryptocurrency users do not face the same enforcement action.
“In the same way that the feds and states differ on the use of cannabis, the feds and states disagree on the use of p2p cryptocurrency transactions,” Rizzn said. “Delaware, Texas and Wyoming are actively promoting p2p cryptocurrency transactions in such a way that they are manufacturing hundreds of thousands of criminals (like me!) every day. There needs to be a) clarity on how to be as compliant as possible and b) ideally a pushback from exaggerated targeting in the first place”.
FinCEN filed similar charges against a California resident in April 2019, alleging that he intentionally violated money transfer laws while working to convert crypto to fiat and vice versa. However, the defendant in that case only faced a $35,000 fine and a ban on similar financial activities, not a prison sentence.
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