Criminals Jailed For Multimillion-Pound Crypto Fraud In The UK

Four people from the UK had been jailed because they stole bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies worth tens of millions of pounds from an Australian cryptocurrency exchange and then tried to wash the money.

At Preston Crown Court, 58-year-old Stephen William Boys, 44-year-old Kelly Caton, 23-year-old Jordan Kane Robinson, and 27-year-old James Austin-Beddoes were found guilty of fraud, converting and transferring criminal property and given a total of 15 years in prison.

All four of them were friends of James Parker. They planned the plot from his home in Blackpool between October 2017 and January 2018. Parker, who died in 2021, found a flaw in the cryptocurrency trading platform and took advantage of it. This provided him and his associates with credit worth £21 million.

Parker took £15 million worth of crypto assets out of his trading account for three months. Two of his business partners, Caton and Robinson, stole £2.7 million and £1.7 million from their accounts, respectively.

Parker’s financial adviser, the Boys, helped Kambi, a British citizen living in Dubai, convert the crypto into cash. The money then moved through different online accounts based in other countries.

The unnamed Australian cryptocurrency exchange has received several assets used to launder money.

Jonathan Kelleher of the Crown Prosecution Service said these crooks stole tens of millions of pounds worth of Bitcoin online from their residences. Cybercrime is increasingly threatening the global economy and honest crypto investors.

“Painstaking analysis of vast amounts of digital material and collaborative liaison with the Australian and Finnish authorities enabled us to mount a successful prosecution against these criminals.”