New Orleans man admits defrauding customers through Bitcoin sales | USAO-EDLA

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NEW ORLEANS U.S. Attorney Duane A. Evans announced that MICHAEL YUSKO, III, 46, a resident of New Orleans, today pleaded guilty to operating an unlicensed money transmission business before a judge in Barry W. Ashe United States District.

According to court documents, federal agents received complaints from May 2018 that YUSKO sold its clients bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies but did not follow through on transactions. YUSKO would promise customers any amount of bitcoin in exchange for US dollars at five percent above the market price for a five percent fee. He then instructed these clients to deposit US dollars into one of a number of corporate bank accounts, including Nervous Light Capital LLC, Ready Demolition LLC, Patriot Concrete Pumping, LLC, Praetorian Energy, LLC, and Hudson Oak Partners LLC. . YUSKO has not registered these companies as money transfer companies with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) of the Department of the Treasury, nor has it complied with the regulations of Title 31, United States Code, Section 5330. YUSKO also asked its customers not to tell all bank employees that the purpose of their wire transfer was to purchase cryptocurrency. Agents learned that banks frequently shut down accounts used to sell cryptocurrency, and banks had previously closed YUSKO accounts for such activity.

Court documents detail how customers contacted YUSKO and paid him tens of thousands of dollars for bitcoin. Although YUSKO did transactions with many customers, he did not make any other transactions and then did not return the US dollars deposited in his accounts. YUSKO admitted to being responsible for $ 201,399.00 in casualties. As part of its plea, YUSKO agreed to return in full.

YUSKO faces a maximum of five years in prison, a maximum fine of $ 250,000, up to three years of supervised release and a mandatory special assessment of $ 100. Judge Ashe sentenced the YUSKOs to November 4, 2021.

U.S. Attorney Evans praised the work of the local office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in New Orleans and the local office of the U.S. Secret Service in New Orleans. Deputy United States Attorney Matthew R. Payne is in charge of the prosecution.

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