Jon Barry Thomson, the owner, and manager of a Bitcoin escrow company has been arrested and charged with defrauding clients from as much as $7 million in a series of transactions.
According to the announcement of the Department of Justice of the United States, Thomson had lied to his corporate clients that purchasing Bitcoin through fiat via his service would save them a lot of headache in terms of loss during the transaction.
The evidence shows that Thomson received two large transactions from two companies. One worth $4 million, while the other $3 million.
In a series of lies that Thomson had allegedly concocted through sending fake documentation both of the client companies were left wanting for both their fiat and Bitcoin respectively.
Investigations have concluded that Thomson did not intend to exchange the fiat into Bitcoin whatsoever, and was caught red-handed when trying to mishandle client funds.
In fact, in order to somehow shift the blame, Thomson had exchanged a small portion of the investment received to Bitcoins, which were very easily identified.
There is no information on how much jail time or fines Thomson is looking at if he’s found guilty, but considering the strict nature of US law, he’s definitely not getting out of it lightly.
