The Manhattan District Attorney’s office revealed on Thursday, March 24th, that a former party organizer and ex Goldman Sachs employee, Thomas Spieker, has been charged with laundering $2.7 million in Bitcoin (BTC) and cash to help various clients hide money acquired via criminal activities.
Spieker is facing several charges of illegal money transfer and laundering in the third and fourth degrees, and has pleaded not guilty in New York State Supreme Court.
How was this Bitcoin money laundering scheme carried out?
The Manhattan District Attorney claims that between January 2018 and August 2021, 42-year-old Spieker converted over $2.3 million into Bitcoin (BTC) and over $380,000 worth of Bitcoin into US dollars. He did so via “a rotating set of accomplices” who opened bank and crypto exchange accounts to facilitate the laundering of the monies.
New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg said,
“As alleged, this sprawling web of international money laundering helped drug traffickers, an organized crime ring, and scammers hide their criminal activity and transmit their proceeds around the globe,”
According to the complaint, Spieker had searched “Bitcoin money laundering” on Google, back in 2014. He had also posted on Facebook that his services were for individuals who “wanted to stay completely off the radar”, with an understanding that they were involved in illicit activities.
Spieker and his associates allegedly met with clients who gave them cash in return for Bitcoin, or “vice versa,” and took a 4% to 12% commission. The defendants are accused of opening 28 bank accounts as well as eight bitcoin exchange accounts.
Several of Spieker’s clients, who were also probed by the Manhattan District Attorney, are accused of conducting an illicit drug market on the dark web and an identity theft scam that allegedly affected 30 people.
A rise in cryptocurrency scams?
This is not the first time money has been laundered using crypto or Bitcoin (BTC). Recently, The Department of Justice (DOJ) had accused the creators of the Frosties NFT project with money laundering and wire fraud, after a rug pull was carried out.
DA Bragg had stated (with regards to the Spieker case) that,
“This case shows us how new technologies like cryptocurrency can become key drivers of a wide range of criminal activity that can easily span across the globe.”
Despite the fact that crypto-related or Bitcoin (BTC) crimes were at an all-time high, the bigger picture isn’t nearly as grim as you may expect. Despite the fact that the total value of criminal transaction traffic reached an all-time high in 2021, illicit addresses accounted for only 0.15% of transaction activity.
In truth, with legal cryptocurrency and Bitcoin (BTC) use far outnumbering illegal cryptocurrency use, the percentage of cryptocurrency transaction volume committed to illegal operations has never been lower.