MIAMI — Ethan Thomas Trainor, pleaded guilty to attempted tax evasion. Trainor used sophisticated online techniques to conceal from the IRS more than $1 million in cryptocurrency he earned through illegal transactions on the dark web.
During an audience at Ft. Lauderdale before U.S. District Judge Rodney Smith, Trainor admitted to using cryptocurrency to buy and sell hacked online account credentials (usernames and passwords) on dark web marketplaces. The hacked IDs were connected to paid movie and music streaming services, pornography websites, educational websites, ride-sharing service accounts and other online services.
Taxpayers who transact in cryptocurrency must report their virtual income to the IRS and pay federal taxes on that income. From 2014 to 2017, Trainor earned over $1 million in cryptocurrency through dark web transactions and attempted to avoid paying taxes on it by using services and techniques designed to disguise it. money was his. For example, Trainor executed its virtual currency transactions through “mixers”, online services that aggregate (mix) cryptocurrency transactions from different users and then distribute the “clean” cryptocurrency to users’ virtual wallets. . The mix makes it more difficult to determine the identity of those trading in cryptocurrency.
Trainor is expected to be sentenced in December. He faces up to five years in federal prison.
Juan Antonio Gonzalez, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida; Special Agent in Charge Matthew D. Line, IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), Miami; Deanne L. Reuter, Special Agent in Charge, DEA Miami; Robert M. DeWitt, Acting Special Agent in Charge, FBI Miami; Anthony Salisbury, Special Agent for Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Miami; and Juan A. Vargas, Acting Chief Inspector, United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), Miami, announced the sentencing.
IRS-CI Miami, DEA Miami, FBI Miami, HSI Miami, and USPIS Miami investigated the case. Assistant US Attorney Monique Botero is suing him.
This case and the prosecution were conducted by members of the South Florida High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) Task Force. The South Florida HIDTA, established in 1990, is made up of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies that cooperatively target drug trafficking and money laundering organizations in the area. The South Florida HIDTA is funded by the Office of National Drug Control Policy, which sponsors a variety of initiatives focused on the nation’s illicit drug trafficking threats.
This pursuit was part of Operation TORnado, which is the result of the ongoing efforts of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OECDTF), a partnership of federal, state and local law enforcement agencies. The primary mission of the OECDTF program is to identify, disrupt, and dismantle drug traffickers, money launderers, and other priority transnational criminal organizations that threaten the citizens of the United States using an attorney, Intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach to combating transnational organized crime. The OECDTF program facilitates complex joint operations by focusing its partner agencies on priority targets, managing and coordinating multi-agency efforts, and leveraging intelligence across multiple investigative platforms.
Related court documents and information can be found on the District Court for the Southern District of Florida website at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or at http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov , under the case number. 22-cr-60194.
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