Durham, N.C. Man Is Sentenced To Prison For Operating An Unlicensed Cryptocurrency Business And Related Tax Charges

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Jayton Gill, 35, of Durham, N.C., was sentenced to 21 months in prison followed by a year of supervised release today for operating an unlicensed money transmitting business and willful failure to file a tax return, announced Dena J. King, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina. Gill was also ordered to pay a forfeiture money judgement in the amount of $475,000.

Robert M. DeWitt, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in North Carolina, and Karen Wingerd, Acting Special Agent in Charge of IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS CI), Charlotte Field Office, join U.S. Attorney King in making today’s announcement.

According to filed court documents and court proceedings, from 2015 to 2021, Gill operated an unlicensed money transmitting business involving the exchange of millions of dollars of cash and other monetary instruments for cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Monero. During the relevant time, Gill conducted thousands of transactions involving thousands of Bitcoins. As Gill previously admitted in court, he advertised his unlicensed money transmitting business on various public websites and made claims on one such website that he had conducted more than 4,200 transactions with 2,700 different parties. Gill also conducted unlicensed money transactions in person and via the U.S. Postal Service.

Court records show that Gill also failed to file U.S. Individual Income Tax Returns for tax years 2015 through 2019, despite earning significant income from his unlicensed money transmitting business and from investing in cryptocurrency.

On July 12, 2022, Gill pleaded guilty to operating an unlicensed money transmitting business and failure to file a tax return. He will be ordered to report to the federal Bureau of Prisons upon designation of a federal facility.

The FBI and IRS CI handled the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Ryan of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Charlotte prosecuted the case.