We, along with many other news outlets had earlier reported the arrest of Coin.mx founder Anthony Murgio in connection with the operation of an illegal bitcoin exchange and money laundering. Anthony Murgio, a resident of Florida made a court appearance yesterday.
For a person who is facing multiple charges, Anthony seemed composed and was found chatting up with a couple of federal agents while in court. It is suspected that Anthony Murgio might be in possession of some information which might help the authorities identify those involved in the JPMorgan Chase hacking incident. Anthony Murgio was presented before the United States Magistrate judge, James C. Francis IV at the Federal Court in Lower Manhattan.
Represented by Gregory W Kehoe of Greenberg Traurig, Anthony Murgio let his counsel do all the talking inside the court. Currently on bail, he was instructed by the judge after considering the request made by the federal prosecutor Eun Young Choi to not talk to anyone from Coin.mx or work with any money transfer firm until the case is over. According to the federal investigators, Anthony Murgio played the role of an accomplice to a money laundering scheme after he allowed online criminals to use Coin.mx to exchange bitcoin for cash. If convicted on the charges of money laundering, Anthony can face up to 20 years in prison.
READ MORE: Coin.MX Promoters Charged with Multiple Offences
His partner, Yuri Lebedev is also facing similar charges and he is currently out after paying $25,000 bond, whereas Anthony Murgio’s bail was set at $100,000. Even though there are suspicions about their connections with the hackers who broke in to JPMorgan Chase systems to steal customer information, they aren’t being charged for any wrongdoings. However, he is still considered as a potential source of information.
Another friend of Anthony Murgio, Joshua Aaron who is currently in Israel is also one of the persons of interest in a pump and dump scheme which he operated with two accomplices Grey Shalon and Ziv Orenstein. Both Grey and Ziv are currently in Israeli custody.
Both Anthony Murgio and his lawyer have refused to speak about the ongoing court proceedings.