Judge Dumps Laundering Charges, Says Bitcoin’s Not Real

However, today one Florida judge ruled it was property, strengthening that argument and potentially setting precedent in future Bitcoin-related court cases. They are certainly not tangible wealth and can not be hidden under a mattress like cash or gold bars.

On Monday, Judge Teresa Mary Pooler discarded felony charges against website designer Michell Espinoza, who had been accused of transmitting and laundering $1,500 in bitcoins-an impossible-to-prove charge since bitcoin isn’t actual “tangible wealth” that can “be hidden under a mattress like cash and gold bars”, per the Miami Herald.

As a result of this ruling, one man convicted of selling “illegally obtained’ bitcoins had both charges dismissed”.

Pooler, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge, acquitted Espinoza in what judges called the first state money-laundering case involving electronic money.

Regulated services such as CoinBank, which operates similar to PayPal, allow people to buy, sell and use the Bitcoins. Pooler’s ruling shows how far bitcoin has to go.

Despite its increasingly common use, many see Bitcoin as inherently dirty, used when people have something to hide.

Besides recognizing crypto-currencies as another form of money, the draft also includes a set of regulations that will provide FIUs (financial intelligence units) with the tools needed to keep track of digital currencies, in the same way they do with fiat currencies.

North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory, a Republican, recently signed House Bill 289, which puts virtual currency businesses within the scope of the state’s Money Transmitters Act, according to The National Law Review.

During the trial, defense attorney Frank Andrew Prieto presented a 1966 USA quarter to the court and asked expert witness Charles Evans, who was paid $3,000 in Bitcoins for his appearance, if Bitcoin was a real coin.

The Internal Revenue Service considers Bitcoin physical property and is taxed as such.

NY past year introduced digital currency regulations that relate to consumer protection, anti-money laundering compliance, and cyber-security guidelines. In an unrelated South Florida case, a Miramar man got 10 years in prison after using Bitcoins to buy Chinese-made synthetic heroin from a Canadian prisoner.

Dr Charles Evans, associate professor of finance and economics at Barry University, has studied virtual currencies extensively. It does not have any central authority … and Bitcoins are not backed by anything.

A spokesman for the state’s attorney general in Miami, Katherine Fernandez Rundle, said it was unclear if the case would be brought up for appeal.

A co-defendant previously pleaded guilty to acting as an unlicensed money broker. In Miami, some restaurants accept Bitcoin and even a plastic surgeon. At some point state and federal lawmakers (and even those in other countries) are going to have to sit down and write a stricter definition of Bitcoin that will remove any ambiguity on whether or not it should be classified as currency or property.