In a UK first, an individual has been sentenced to four years in prison for illegal crypto activity worth over £2.5m and associated offences.
Crypto ATMs allow people to convert money into cryptoassets and/or cryptoassets into money. It is illegal to operate crypto ATMs in the UK without FCA registration. There are currently no firms in the UK with such a registration.
The individual pleaded guilty to five offences. The first two offences were operating a network of crypto ATMs without the required FCA permission, first as the director of an entity called GidiPlus Ltd and secondly as a sole trader. The third offence was committing forgery, where he created four bank statements in an effort to pass source of wealth checks with a cryptoasset exchange provider. The fourth offence was using a false instrument, namely false identity documents in the name of his alias to incorporate a company under the control of that alias. The final offence was possessing criminal property, £19,540 of cash which was obtained from running the crypto ATM network.
Between 30 December 2021 and 12 March 2022, he operated crypto ATMs at 28 different locations via his company, GidiPlus Ltd, despite being refused registration with the FCA. He later transferred the machines from GidiPlus Ltd and personally operated a reduced network of up to 12 crypto ATMs under a false name and company to evade detection.
In addition, he failed to carry out the necessary checks to ensure that the ATMs were not being used by criminals to launder the proceeds of crime.
He was convicted and sentenced for forgery, using false identity documents, and possessing criminal property.
At the hearing, the FCA requested the court initiate confiscation proceedings under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002. These proceedings will look to recover any financial benefit he obtained from his activities.
His sentence is the first for unregistered cryptoasset activity in the UK. It follows the FCA's operation, working in partnership with law enforcement agencies, to tackle illegal crypto ATMs across the country. In 2023, the FCA visited 38 locations and disrupted 30 machines. The number of crypto ATMs in the UK has fallen from more than 80 in 2022 to zero in 2024.
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