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The Bitcoin Foundation announced Thursday afternoon that they have filed an amicus brief with respect to a criminal case surrounding bitcoin transactions in the state of Florida and more specifically a case involving two subjects arrested last February in Miami Beach.
Police in Miami Beach in conjunction with the U.S. Secret Service’s Miami Electronic Crimes Task arrested the two men moving a large amounts of cash in and out of the Bitcoin virtual currency. At the time it was believed to have been the first case that bitcoin vendors have been charged with a crime.
The case involves two men (pictured here), Pascal Reid (29) and Michel Abner Espinoza (30), who were both sellers of bitcoin on LocalBitcoins.com. Both men were charged with money laundering.
Undercover officers purchased $1500 worth of bitcoin from the men, noting that their intentions were to obtain stolen credit cards and numbers through use of the anonymous digital currency.
The Bitcoin Foundation’s amicus brief supports one of the defendants (not identified) and his motion to dismiss the charges of operating as an unregistered money transmitter.
The Foundation writes:
The foundation’s position at its core is this: state prosecutors are improperly applying Florida statutes regulating “money service businesses” to individuals conducting peer-to-peer sales of bitcoins.
The Foundation notes they were assisted on a pro bono basis for the brief filing by Brian Beiber of the GrayRobinson, P.A. law firm.
The Bitcoin Foundation added it is “committed to representing the interests of the Bitcoin community everywhere in the world, including in court proceedings.”
Established online gambling operators the likes of Americas Cardroom, SportsBettingOnline and 5Dimes have recently begun to embrace bitcoin after initially reservations.
- Aaron Goldstein, Gambling911.com
