[Infowarrior] - Florida judge: Bitcoins aren’t currency, so state money laws don’t apply

[Richard Forno]

Florida judge: Bitcoins aren’t currency, so state money laws don’t apply

Cyrus Farivar - 7/27/2016, 9:40 AM

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/07/florida-judge-bitcoins-arent-currency-so-state-money-laws-dont-apply/

A Florida judge has decided in favor of a bitcoin vendor charged with violating local money-laundering laws, because, she found, the cryptocurrency is not money as defined under state law.
“The Florida Legislature may choose to adopt statutes regulating virtual currency in the future,” Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Teresa Mary Pooler wrote in her Monday opinion. “At this time, however, attempting to fit the sale of bitcoin into a statutory scheme regulating money services businesses is like fitting a square peg in a round hole.”

According to her eight-page opinion, a Miami police detective began investigating local bitcoin sales in the area in 2013 after learning more about it from a local and federal task force led by the Secret Service. Detective Ricardo Arias then started looking at postings on localbitcoins.com, a website where people can arrange in-person bitcoin sales for cash, often anonymously. One vendor, “Michelhack,” offered 24-hour availability and only wanted to meet in public places, which Arias thought might be suspicious.

On December 4, 2013, Arias, working undercover, arranged to meet “Michelhack,” who turned out to be a man named Michell Espinoza, at a Miami café. Espinoza sold him 0.4 bitcoins for $500 cash. A month later, Arias again arranged a second deal, buying 1 bitcoin for $1,000.

According to the judge’s summary, at this meeting Arias, working still undercover, told the vendor that he was interested in buying “stolen credit card numbers from Russians” and would be using the bitcoins to pay for them. Arias asked Espinoza if he’d accept stolen credit card numbers as payment, and Espinoza said he would “think about it.” Then, after arranging a third transaction, Arias tried to set up a large buy of $30,000 worth of bitcoins.

Meeting in a hotel room wired for surveillance, Arias produced a “flash roll” of hundreds as a way to convince Espinoza. The vendor inspected it and told Arias that he thought it might be counterfeit. Arias arrested Espinoza before he took possession of the large quantity of cash, charging him with three counts of unlawfully being a money transmitter and two counts of money laundering. Espinoza and his lawyer have been challenging the case ever since.

A spokesman for the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office told the Miami Herald: “We are presently reviewing the court order to determine whether we will be appealing this decision.”

As it is a state case, the ruling has no legal bearing outside of Florida.

In March 2013, a US federal agency, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), published new guidelines stipulating that bitcoin-related businesses should be considered Money Services Businesses under US law.

Later that year, in August 2013, a federal judge in Texas found that bitcoins are “a currency or form of money," and are therefore subject to relevant US laws.
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