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A Cleveland man is accused of running a $3 million illegal cryptocurrency exchange
CLEVELAND, Ohio —A Cleveland man is accused of running a $3 million illegal cryptocurrency exchange.
According to court documents, Donald G. Greene III was not licensed to operate a currency exchange and did so to avoid paying fees associated with currency exchanges. According to authorities, he kept 12% to 28% of each transaction for himself.
Greene, 36, was charged Wednesday in federal court in Cleveland with operating an unlicensed money transmitting business. He was indicted by information, meaning he agreed to skip the grand jury proceedings. It generally means that a defendant intends to plead guilty to the charge.
Greene’s attorney, Michael Goldberg, said his client is “taking responsibility” for his actions.
“He hopes to put it all behind him,” Goldberg said.
The appearance and plea hearing is scheduled for June 6.
Greene ran the bitcoin exchange from about February to September 2022. He had five major clients, all from India, who funneled $3 million to him for the exchange, according to court documents.
Greene received money from customers by wire transfer to his bank account or by setting up debit card accounts using the names and personally identifiable information of people he knew. He sent the debit card information to his customers, who linked the card to an online payment app.
The second option allowed Greene to avoid paying transaction fees to banks and prevent them from finding out that he was operating a money transfer business, according to court documents.
Once he obtained the money, Greene transferred it to other people’s bank accounts in California, Florida, Texas and Venezuela. According to court documents, those people converted the money into cryptocurrency without paying fees and sent it to Greene’s cryptocurrency wallets.
Greene then transferred the cryptocurrency into his clients’ wallets after taking a fee, according to prosecutors.
Adam Ferrise covers federal courts at cleveland.com and The Simple Tradesman. You can find his work Here.