Man Charged In New York Over Illegal Bitcoin ATMs

The District Attorney of Manhattan has charged a man for illegally running Bitcoin ATMs throughout New York, New Jersey and Miami.

Prosecutors claim 35 year old, Robert Taylor, a native to the New York area, was controlling over 46 Bitcoin ATMs across three cities from 2017 to 2018 and sold over $5.6 million in Bicoin, taking 10-20% in fees per transaction.

Taylor gave himself in yesterday, according to a statement released by the Da’s office to Reuters. He is charged with false filings, tax fraud, and running an unlicensed money transmitter.

"Robert Taylor allegedly went to great lengths to keep his Bitcoin kiosk business as secret as possible to attract a clientele that would pay top dollar for anonymity," said Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg Jr. in a press release.

"As the use of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin proliferate, they continue to attract a wide-range of bad actors who are hoping to evade law enforcement.” He added that, “we will not allow digital currencies to become safe havens for illegal activity."

Bitcoin ATMs are not inherently illegal to operate as long as they follow local tax and licensing regulations. With that said, recently authorities have linked a number crimes including money laundering and other criminal activity to his ATMs.

Last December, The United States Government Accountability Office unveiled a report detailing the role Bitcoin ATMs may play in the ghastly world of human and drug trafficking.

The report made the case that Bitcoin ATMs were not requird to regularly report the location of their machines. This is a possible blind spot for federal agencies looking to identify kiosks in areas that are high risk of financial crimes as well as human and drug trafficking.

The report also cites the FBI, which has said there has been "an increase in the use of virtual currency kiosks for illicit purposes," including human and drug trafficking.

This news coincides with the recent shut down of all Bitcoins ATMs in the UK, a move that was made by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority in March. The FCA stated: “None of the crypto asset firms registered with us have been approved to offer crypto ATM services, meaning that any of them operating in the UK are doing so illegally and consumers should not be using them.”