U.S. Charges Pair With Bank Fraud in Cryptocurrency-Trading Case

(Bloomberg) -- Federal prosecutors accused an Arizona man and an Israeli woman of providing illicit financial services to people using cryptocurrency, claiming they concealed the true nature of hundreds of millions of dollars flowing in and out of banks around the world.

Reginald Fowler, of Chandler, Arizona, and Ravid Yosef, of Tel Aviv, were accused of buying and selling cryptocurrency with counterparts around the world and misrepresenting the payments as real estate proceeds to banks where they had set up accounts.

The two, who allegedly failed to follow established compliance procedures such as “know your customer,” were charged with conspiracy and bank fraud. Fowler faces additional charges of operating an unlicensed money-transfer business. He was scheduled for a court hearing in Phoenix on Tuesday; Yosef remains at large.

The case is being handled by money-laundering prosecutors in the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan. Attorney information for the defendants wasn’t immediately available.

According to court papers filed in the case, the alleged scheme lasted less than a year but took in vast sums from people and entities as far-flung as Hong Kong, Germany, Australia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.

To contact the reporter on this story: Christian Berthelsen in New York at cberthelsen1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: David Glovin at dglovin@bloomberg.net, Peter Jeffrey

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