LOS ANGELES – An Orange County man has agreed to plead guilty to federal criminal charges that he operated an illegal virtual-currency money services business that exchanged up to $25 million – including on behalf of criminals – through in-person transactions and a network of Bitcoin ATM-type kiosks.
Kais Mohammad, 36, a.k.a. “Superman29,”, of Yorba Linda, was charged in a three-count criminal information filed today in U.S. District Court. In a plea agreement also filed today, Mohammad agreed to plead guilty to one count of operating an unlicensed money transmitting business, one count of money laundering, and one count of failure to maintain an effective anti-money laundering program.
This case was investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Los Angeles, IRS Criminal Investigation and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. The investigation was conducted with the support of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF).