Ian Freeman in federal court in Concord, New Hampshire, in April 2023.
NBC 10 Boston
A New Hampshire libertarian activist and radio show host convicted of using Bitcoin to launder tens of millions of dollars in proceeds from romance scams and internet scams has been ordered to pay more than $3.5 million in restitution to 29 mostly elderly victims convicted, prosecutors said Tuesday.
Money launderer Ian Freeman was also ordered by a judge to forfeit other assets as compensation for the scheme and, among other things, used multiple churches to receive money from victims under the guise of donations before exchanging it for cryptocurrency, prosecutors said .
The assets included about 5.24 Bitcoin, currently worth more than $258,000, and about $1.1 million in U.S. currency, according to the order from the U.S. District Court in New Hampshire.
Freeman, 43, who has long promoted Bitcoin as an alternative to the U.S. dollar, was sentenced to eight years in federal prison in October for his role in the fraud conspiracy as part of a group called “Crypto Six.” He was also fined $40,000.
Prosecutors, calling his actions “the worst kind of crime,” said he laundered scams by exchanging dollars for the popular cryptocurrency while charging “exorbitant fees.”
Prosecutors said Freeman made more than $1 million from his business, which he failed to register with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network as required by law.
“Ian Freeman’s money laundering business caused unnecessary distress to many vulnerable people,” said U.S. Attorney for the District of New Hampshire Jane Young in a statement on the order from U.S. District Judge Joseph Laplante.
“Nothing will ever ease the pain he caused these victims, but I am grateful that the dedicated prosecution team in this case was able to bring many of them back to financial health.”
“Freeman and his co-conspirators opened and maintained accounts at financial institutions in the names of various churches, including the Shire Free Church, the Church of the Invisible Hand, the Crypto Church of New Hampshire and the NH Peace Church,” Young’s office said in a statement.
“Freeman instructed Bitcoin customers, who were often victims of scams, to lie to financial institutions and describe their deposits as church donations. From 2016 to 2019, he paid no taxes and hid his income from the Internal Revenue Service,” the office said.
Freeman’s attorney, Mark Sisti, told CNBC that his client was “very happy with the number” in the restitution order and that the assets he recovered would cover the $3.5 million “without any issues.”
Sisti said he and Freeman will now focus on the pending appeal of his conviction.
The attorney disputed the prosecution’s characterization of Freeman and the impact of his actions.
“There was no determination that these so-called victims were, quote, at risk,” Sisti said. “They pursued this activity on their own initiative. They were very intelligent people.”
“This wasn’t about stealing grandma’s piggy bank, but about experienced people moving money and cryptocurrencies themselves,” Sisti said.
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But at trial, the jury was presented with evidence that Freeman had a folder on his computer containing pictures of romance scam victims, many of them older women.
In their sentencing memorandum, prosecutors condemned Freeman, writing that he “operated an undercover money laundering business despite knowing that a large number of his customers were elderly victims of romance scams and other types of fraud.”
“Without hesitation, Freeman took these victims’ money, converted it into anonymous Bitcoin, and sent it to virtual wallets controlled by fraudsters,” prosecutors wrote. “With full knowledge of what he was doing, Freeman carried out the seizure of the victims’ savings and ensured that once they realized they had been defrauded, they would never see that money again.”
During his sentencing, one of his victims, a Florida widow named Karen Miller, told Judge Laplante that she had been scammed by a man she met on a dating website who had instructed her to give $300,000 to Freeman to broadcast, the Associated Press reported at the time. Her savings were destroyed by the scam, she said.
Another victim, Rebecca Vicar, said she took out three loans and sold her husband’s truck to send money as part of a similar scam.
“My life and countless lives have been financially and emotionally ruined,” Vicar said at the sentencing, the AP reported. She called Freeman “an ugly person.”
A 2021 profile of Freeman in New York magazine, published as he was released on bail in his criminal case, said that during his “Free Talk Live” radio show, a caller asked him if he had anything else had done otherwise knew he would be prosecuted.
“Is there anything I regret?” I mean, of course not,” Freeman responded, according to the article.
“This is my mission,” he added. “I have been commissioned by God to bring this alternative form of value into people’s hands.”
Three of Freeman’s co-defendants pleaded guilty to a single count of wire fraud in April 2022: Andrew Spinella; Renee Spinella; and Nobody, also known as Richard Paul.
Andrew Spinella was sentenced to 18 months probation; Renee Spinella must spend one day in jail, followed by three months of supervised release; and No one was sentenced to more than five months in prison and two years of supervised release.
A fourth defendant, Aria DeMezzo, pleaded guilty in September 2022 to operating an unlicensed money transfer business and was sentenced to 18 months in prison followed by one year of supervised release.
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2024-02-13 23:43:50
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