Iossifov was accused of two conspiracy counts; racketeering and money laundering. After a two-week trial, it was confirmed that Rosen was targeting Americans through sophisticated schemes to steal their money and laundered the amounts in cryptocurrency.
The small business was focused on serving the Europeans but last year, it caught the eye of the US investigators due to the suspicions that Iossifov was working with a Romanian money laundering gang.
Sources say that Rosen might face 20 years of imprisonment, a $250,000 fine, and three years of release under supervision.
RGcoins founder has been convicted for money laundering & racketeering. Rosen Iossifov allegedly stole money from at least 900 Americans through auction sites by posting fake adverts for high-cost goods that don’t exist. Then launder the funds using crypto.https://t.co/NWmvG3yD4y
— FCCED – Financial Crimes News (@FinCrimeEdu) September 29, 2020
The court documents state that Rosen and his partners victimized around 900 Americans through fake advertisements and phishing attacks from 2014-15. Through platforms like eBay and Craigslist, they were auctioning expensive items that never existed in reality. The buyers never received the products and a group of 14 Romanian citizens misappropriated the proceedings. Then, the group used RGCoins to launder the stolen money by purchasing Bitcoin. Iossifov claims that he was unaware of the Romanian activity.
Rosen Iossifov was arrested in 2018 in Bulgaria and was deported to the US in 2019 for further investigation. RGCoins had a 5 BTC limitation for anonymous orders. However, Rosen exchanged Bitcoin worth more than $4.9 million for four members of the enterprise without KYC verification.
Read more about cryptocurrency and KYC at Enhancing security in the cryptocurrency world with KYC verification
