Free Talk Live co-anchor Ian Freeman received his sentence following a conviction for unlicensed money transmission, money laundering, and tax evasion in December 2022.
U.S. District Court Judge Joseph Laplante sentenced Freeman to 96 months in prison, two years of supervised release, and a fine of $40,000. Furthermore, Freeman was ordered to pay restitution to victims at a later date.
“The defendant’s criminal conduct devastated many vulnerable people,” U.S. Attorney Jane E. Young said. “Dozens of victims were identified during the investigation. Many of them lost their life’s savings by way of Freeman’s Bitcoin money laundering scheme.
“The Court recognized that an important part of this sentence was for the defendant to provide restitution to the victims. In financial crimes cases such as this, providing restitution to victims is one of the highest priorities of the U.S. Department of Justice and this Office.”
According to the press release, Freeman exchanged U.S. dollars for Bitcoin to launder over $10 million from romance scams and other internet frauds. Freeman neglected to follow the legal requirement of registering his business with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.
He also disabled the “know your customer” feature on his Bitcoin kiosks and did not inquire about the purposes for which his customers used their funds. Consequently, his business became attractive to fraudsters. Freeman charged excessively high fees, which enabled him to earn over one million dollars.
Eduardo Razo is the Assistant Content Editor for BNM, which includes writing daily news stories on the news media industry. He can be found on Twitter @eddierazo_ or you can reach him by email at eddie1991razo@gmail.com.
