Cryptocurrency trader charged with a year in prison — his company traded without license

According to the press release published on the official website of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the District of Maine, the name of the cryptocurrency criminal is Sal Mansy, and he created a company called TV TOYZ that later was used for Bitcoin trading — previously in May, the court found out he bought bitcoins on Coinbase and Bitstamp and sold them on LocalBitcoins to gain profit. While there is nothing criminal in doing so without any created firms, those who want to do similar trades with the help of the firms they create must know that FinCEN, a powerful financial surveillance organization, deems it necessary to registrate such businesses with it. FinCEN was one of the main bodies that investigated the activities of Alexander Vinnik, alleged crypto money launderer.

In the case of Mr. Mansy, the court deduced he knew about this and decided not to undergo this procedure, thus violating federal financial legislation of the United States. The whole case did not start tomorrow: this trader was caught by the police back in 2015.

Some websites and social media channels started to share this news, trying to present the case as an example of how government hunts honest traders, but there is a thing that ruins this concept: the Attorney’s Office website tells this trader sold “$2.4 million worth of the virtual currency “Bitcoin” online for profit” using the company he decided not to license properly. There is a reason to believe that not every cryptocurrency trader does such things, and this means the government will not pursue each and every trader.