Ex-Party Producer Charged in $2.7 Million Bitcoin-Laundering Scheme

Darkish-web drug sellers promoting ketamine, MDMA and counterfeit Xanax in each state in America. An identification thief hacking into his targets’ cellphones. A member of an Jap European organized crime syndicate.

These, prosecutors stated, have been simply a few of the prospects of Thomas Spieker, a former occasion producer who was charged on Thursday in state court docket in Manhattan with laundering greater than $2.3 million in Bitcoin for criminals around the globe from 2018 to 2021.

Prosecutors described Mr. Spieker, 42, as a digital Bitcoin A.T.M., exchanging money for cryptocurrency. Along with the $2.3 million in Bitcoin he was charged with laundering, he was accused of changing greater than $380,000 in cryptocurrency into money.

Mr. Spieker was charged with a number of counts of cash laundering and unlicensed cash transmission. He pleaded not responsible and was launched on his personal recognizance. His lawyer, Richard Verchick, declined to remark.

Charged with him have been:

• Zashan Khan, 30, and Cosmas Siekierski, 25, of Manhattan, who prosecutors stated offered unlawful medication over the darkish net, part of the web the place criminality thrives and that’s accessible additionally solely although particular software program. A web-based storefront the 2 operated, OVO sweatshop, took its title from the rapper Drake’s document label, October’s Very Personal.

• Anderson LaRoc, 33, of Brooklyn, who prosecutors stated focused 30 victims in an identity-theft scheme.

• Dustin Websites, 33, of Brooklyn, who prosecutors stated helped Mr. Spieker by opening financial institution and cryptocurrency accounts to assist launder cash.

• John Humphrey and Fidello Palermo of Rochester, N.Y., each 51, who prosecutors stated took over the OVO sweatshop operation, and who have been stopped on a visit to Brooklyn and located with 1.7 kilograms of powder and crystalline ketamine and 140 clear vials of liquid ketamine.

All six pleaded not responsible and have been launched on their very own recognizance.

“This sprawling net of worldwide cash laundering helped drug traffickers, an organized crime ring, and scammers conceal their legal exercise and transmit their proceeds across the globe,” Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district legal professional, stated in a press release.

Mr. Spieker, who as soon as labored in equities on the funding financial institution Goldman Sachs, has been a Bitcoin aficionado for the reason that foreign money’s early days. In 2014, he was the topic of a Vice article that highlighted his work as a DJ working beneath the title S!CK.

Mr. Spieker stated within the article that he had used Bitcoin investments to finance an everyday dance occasion in Brooklyn. He claims on his LinkedIn web page that he has produced events that includes the rapper A$AP Rocky, the group Loss of life Grips, and the DJs Araabmuzik and DJ Rashad.

Sooner or later, Mr. Spieker seems to have pivoted from musical genres like dubstep and witch home to completely different undertakings. In a 2018 Fb publish, based on prosecutors, he marketed his money-laundering providers, pitching them as being for potential shoppers who needed to “STAY COMPLETELY OFF THE RADAR.”

From March 2018 to June 2020, Mr. Spieker, working with Mr. Websites and others, opened 29 financial institution accounts and eight cryptocurrency change accounts, prosecutors stated. His price ranged from 4 to 12 p.c of the cash being laundered.

Mr. Spieker’s most distinguished buyer, whom he described as his “whale consumer,” was the Jap European organized crime member, prosecutors stated. Mr. Spieker laundered $620,000 for the consumer, they stated.

Mr. Spieker can be accused of laundering greater than $267,000 for the operator of a Nigeria-based “romance rip-off,” who used the title Mark Kindly. Mr. Kindly, prosecutors stated, persuaded a nurse he met on a New York relationship website to ship him cash beneath numerous false pretenses, together with that he was being held in a Dubai jail and wanted to repay his captors. The girl gave Mr. Spieker and Mr. Websites over $200,000, prosecutors stated.

There have been indicators that Mr. Spieker was involved about being caught. His Google search historical past, based on the indictment, revealed searches for “bitcoin cash laundering” and articles about individuals who had been convicted of Bitcoin cash laundering.

There have been a number of notable Bitcoin laundering instances in New York this yr. This month, a 47-year-old man pleaded responsible in Manhattan to drug trafficking, cash laundering and conspiracy for promoting medication over the darkish net and laundering his earnings in cryptocurrency. The person, Chester Anderson, operated two digital storefronts that he used to promote 10,000 tablets of generic Xanax, in addition to ketamine and GHB to undercover Manhattan district legal professional investigators.

Final month, federal prosecutors charged a married couple, Ilya Lichtenstein, 34, and Heather Morgan, 31, with conspiring to launder billions of {dollars} in Bitcoin. Like Mr. Spieker, Ms. Morgan dabbled in music; she made satirical rap songs utilizing the title Razzlekhan.

Lananh Nguyen contributed reporting.