Crypto Criminal received four-year prison sentence in the landmark judgment

Crypto Criminal Olumide Osunkoya was sentenced to four years in prison in a pioneering British conviction for illegal surgery of Kryptourrency Automats.

The 46-year-old who okay to be guilty Last September was in front of the Southwark Crown Court because of his company Gidiplus Ltd. convicted of the operation of crypto money machines – physical kiosks for buying and selling cryptoassets.

Between December 30, 2021 and March 12, 2022, the illegal crypto machines from Osunkoya processed over 2.5 million GBP of transactions.

According to British law, it is illegal to operate crypto money machines without registration. According to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), Gidrus had applied for approval, but was rejected.

Osunkoya not only operated the terminals through his company, but also exceeded several machines into a personal network of up to 12 ATMs under a wrong name.

“Their decision to continue to operate illegally was a intentional and calculated despite against the supervisory authority. They knew exactly that they were unlawful,” said judge Perrins in his conviction.

“They made great efforts to create the wrong identity to hide their commitment.

“Your actions were intentionally and carefully planned … it cannot be said that it is a mere regulatory injury.”

Osunkoya's judgment is the first for unregistered crypto activities in Great Britain and sends a “clear message” to “those who fled our rules who discover and participate in criminal activities,” says Therese Chambers, Joint Executive Director of Enforcement and Market Oversight at the FCA.

The FCA, which has worked with various police stations, started a procedure against crypto money machines, which pose a considerable risk of enabling criminals to wash poorly gotten profits.

Raids have taken place at alleged locations at 38 locations, including London And Leather.

According to Coinatmradar, which follows the location of the crypto terminals, the number of websites advertised in Great Britain fell from more than 80 to zero in 2022 to the end of last year.

Great Britain, the USA, Canada and Australia have all the forced requirements that Krypto money machines are registered for the company at the responsible authorities.

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