Florida Bitcoin Exchange Schemer Gets 16 Months

A software engineer from Florida was slapped with a 16-month prison term late last week after a court found him guilty of scamming to aid an illegal bitcoin exchange.

According a Reuters news report, U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan in Manhattan sentenced Yuri Lebedev for helping the exchange conceal its activities from regulators and banks. The bitcoin exchange, Coin.mx, was linked to JPMorgan’s 2014 data breach, in which the account information of more than 83 million customers was compromised.

Lebedev was convicted back in March, along with New Jersey pastor Trevon Gross. The software engineer was found guilty of helping to arrange bribes that went to Gross, including a $150,000 donation to the church. In turn, Gross helped Coin.mx operator Anthony Murgio take control of a credit union Gross ran from the church, reported Reuters. The credit union was then used to detract the attention of banks who weren’t keen to process digital currency payments.

Gross will face sentencing later in October, while Murgio pleaded guilty at the start of the year and was slapped with a five-year sentence this past summer.

“We are dismayed that Mr. Lebedev has been sentenced to prison,” Lebedev’s lawyer, Eric Creizman, said in an email to Reuters. He could have faced up to 97 months in prison, noted Reuters. Although the three weren’t charged with hacking, Coin.mx owner Gary Shalon of Israel is believed to be behind the breach at JPMorgan three years ago, prosecutors contend.

Last year, indictment documents concerning the case were unsealed, divulging that the suspects behind the hacks of financial services players – including JPMorgan, E*TRADE Financial, Scottrade Financial Services and Dow Jones – were involved in the illegal interception of information about stock prices linked to an illicit online gambling ring, and had a connection to the bitcoin cryptocurrency.

In November, Ricardo Hill, who was arrested in Florida a month prior, was also charged with conspiring to operate an unlicensed money transmitting firm. Hill was the finance support manager and a business development consultant for Coin.mx, which was operated by Murgio and owned by Gary Shalon, the Israeli accused of being behind the JPMorgan hack and that of other companies.