Lois Boyd and Manik Mehtani face up to 20 years in prison. (Representative image)
Washington:
Two individuals, including an Indian-American, have been charged by a US court for their role in a cryptocurrency money laundering scheme, the Justice Department said.
Lois Boyd and Manik Mehtani — both from Virginia — face up to 20 years in prison.
According to the indictment, Boyd and Mehtani colluded with others to receive money from victims from various fraud schemes and launder the proceeds through cryptocurrency.
They reportedly have structured deposits routinely to avoid transaction reporting requirements and to hide the nature and source of the criminal proceeds, the Justice Department said.
They allegedly exchanged the criminal proceeds for cryptocurrency and channeled the cryptocurrency into wallets controlled by their foreign co-conspirators, it said.
In August 2020, Boyd and Mehtani traveled to Longview, Texas, where they attempted to exchange more than $4,50,000 for Bitcoin. They were temporarily detained and the money was seized. Over the course of their operation, Boyd, Mehtani and their co-conspirators would launder more than $7.50,000, federal prosecutors said.
