A Florida resident has pleaded guilty to tax evasion. The offender earned more than $1 million in cryptocurrencies through illegal transactions.
During the court hearing, Ethan Thomas Trainor admitted that he used cryptocurrencies to trade hacked accounts (usernames and passwords) on darknet platforms. We are talking about accounts in paid services for watching movies and listening to music, on pornographic sites, educational portals and other online services. Trainor admitted that from 2014 to 2017 he earned more than $1 million in cryptocurrency in this way. The website of the US Department of Justice does not specify which ones.
The resident of Florida did not report his income to the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and deliberately tried to avoid paying taxes. To cover his tracks and preserve anonymity, the offender used cryptocurrency mixing services. Trainor will be sentenced in December, the man faces up to five years in federal prison.
The US Department of Justice said that the prosecution of Trainor was part of the TORnado special operation organized by the The Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF). The main task of OCDETF is to suppress activities related to drug trafficking and money laundering.
In June, a court sentenced two Americans to five years in prison for drug trafficking on the darknet and money laundering using bitcoin. According to Elliptic, the DOGE coin is increasingly being used to pay for prohibited goods on the darknet.
