On January 2nd, Florida police arrested three people suspected of money laundering after a long investigation into the face-to-face Bitcoin trading world.
Traders arranged a face-to-face meeting through the localbitcoins.com website, where they would hand over their Bitcoin wallet code in exchange for cash, making the transaction virtually untraceable.
State prosecutors believe that this is a money transfer business and charge these people in accordance with the Florida version of anti-money laundering regulations. This regulation is the same as the anti-money laundering regulation used in the case against BitInstant CEO Charlie Schrem.
This case is particularly noteworthy because of the huge amount of money involved. One defendant’s LocalBitcoins data showed that he had traded more than 150 bitcoins in the past six months, totaling more than $100,000.
The arrests also hit one of the few Bitcoin sources that remained anonymous, as more and more exchanges no longer use cash transfer services.