NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) – A Queens man was sentenced on Friday for money laundering and operating an unlicensed money transmitting business which was part of a scheme to launder Bitcoin, suspected to be the proceeds of drug trafficking, prosecutors said.
Convicted in 2022, Mustafa Goklu, 50, also known as "Mustangy," was sentenced to 16 months in Prison.
An investigation began in July 2018 when DEA agents saw an ad posted on the website "localbitcoins.com" where the user, Mustangy, offered to purchase $99,999 worth of Bitcoins and convert them into U.S. currency for a fee, according to court documents.
Mustangy was later identified as Goklu. On July 11, 2018, a DEA agent, acting under cover, began exchanging encrypted text messages with Goklu to arrange an in-person exchange, according to the indictment.
The agent met with Goklu and engaged in seven transactions or exchanges of BTC to cash within a period of nine months inside the defendants Mercedes-Benz, ranging from $5,000 to $50,000 for a total of $133,000.
For each transaction, Goklu retained a seven or eight percent commission fee and gave the agent the remaining amount in cash.
Goklu was arrested in April 2019.
The agent indicated to Goklu on multiple occasions that the source of the BTC Goklu was exchanging was narcotics trafficking and that as part of the agent's business he sold oxycodone, Adderall and marijuana, according to court documents.
According to the evidence presented at trial, it was determined that Goklu engaged in similar transactions with multiple other individuals.
"Drug trafficking would be less pervasive and lucrative if money launderers like the defendant did not enable washing the illegal proceeds of the deadly trade," Breon Peace, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York said. "In this case, Goklu used an online peer-to-peer cryptocurrency exchange to advertise his cryptocurrency for cash exchange services. Facilitating the ability of drug traffickers to distribute narcotics in the United States is fully deserving of a prison sentence."
