Bitcoin Exchange Bribery Case Ends With 5-Year Jail Sentence

A New Jersey pastor convicted of accepting bribes from the now-defunct bitcoin exchange Coin.mx has been sentenced to five years in prison.

Trevon Gross was charged in March 2016, with federal prosecutors alleging that the pastor took bribes from those behind Coin.mx. In exchange, prosecutors said, Gross helped the firm use the Hope Federal Credit Union (which was later closed down by regulators) to facilitate international payments.

Gross, whose trial began in February, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan on Monday.

As previously reported, Coin.mx was a Florida-based exchange that was shuttered in mid-2015 after its two operators, Anthony Murgio and Yuri Lebedev, were arrested and charged with running an unlawful money services business. Coin.mx was accused of obscuring the nature of its business by operating as a so-called "Collectible's Club."

The U.S. government later tied the exchange to a broader crime ring that targeted firms like J.P. Morgan with cyberattacks.

Gross was ultimately convicted in March along with Lebedev, who himself was sentenced to 16 months in prison last week. Murgio was sentenced to five-and-a-half years in June.

According to Reuters, Gross was also handed a $12,000 fine.

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