Santa Ana (US), Nov 19 (AP) A Southern California man was sentenced to three years in federal prison for operating an unlicensed business that exchanged at least USD 13 million in Bitcoin and cash, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

Hugo Mejia, 50, of the city of Ontario purposefully flouted money exchange regulations and structured his business to establish an anonymous conduit for money laundering of drug trafficking proceeds, federal prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum.

Also Read | South Korean Cafes, Restaurants to be Banned for Using Disposable Items.

U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney sentenced Mejia on Thursday. Mejia pleaded guilty in July to one count of operating an unlicensed money transmitting business and one count of money laundering.

Mejia exchanged Bitcoin for cash and vice versa and charged commissions for the transactions from May 2018 to September 2020, prosecutors said.

Also Read | Kamala Harris to Become First Woman to Assume ‘Presidential’ Power in US as Joe Biden Undergoes Colonoscopy.

The business was never registered with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, a Treasury Department bureau that combats financial crimes, including money laundering. (AP)

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)