Florida Man Convicted of Using Crypto Mixers to Evade Taxes
Ethan Thomas Trainor pleaded guilty to attempted tax evasion. According to information revealed in court and a proffer statement, Trainor sold hacked online accounts on darkweb markets in exchange for cryptocurrency. He used mixers in an attempt to obscure the source of the funds. Trainor then underreported his earnings to the IRS by filing tax returns that underrepresented his earnings.
For example, according to a criminal information, Trainor filed a tax return in 2015 that was short by $181,933. As a result, the filing resulted in a “loss” to the federal government of $40,846.
The underreported amounts
Trainor admitted that he filed similar tax returns multiple times, resulting in a total “loss” to the federal government of $238,894.
From the proffer statement:
“Ethan TRAINOR bought and sold hacked online account login (usernames and passwords) for movie streaming websites such as Netflix, pornography websites, Spotify, Major Sports websites, laming websites, and Uber accounts through various dark net markets. TRAINOR illegally obtained these usernames and passwords using various methods, from hacking the accounts himself to buying the hacked usernames and passwords. These darknet markets that TRAINOR operated on are specifically designed to facilitate illegal commerce and provide anonymity through user concealment and by employing numerous financial obfuscation techniques. Agents were able to successfully trace the virtual flow of cryptocurrency proceeds from TRAINOR’s sales on various blockchains to numerous mixing and cash-out services.”
Very serious IRS-CI agents in training
There is virtually no information on how investigators tracked Trainor’s activities. Perhaps they flagged him for tax evasion and worked backward from there. He faces up to five years in prison and is scheduled to be sentenced in December.
Non-Payment of Federal Income Tax on Cryptocurrency Earnings Leads to Conviction for South Florida Resident | www.justice.gov, archive.is, archive.org
Statement
The last thing you see
Comments (21)
xmrman2022-10-055eb6d620
This was in 2015 when the freshly forked monero was barely off the ground. Too many unknowns. Regardless, we don't know how he got caught. For all we know he transferred the BTC to his coinbase account to cash his chips. That's going to get him caught regardless of if he tried to wash it by by BTC -> XMR -> BTC transfer first.
anon2022-10-05d9a91b10
a cool project would be follow ups with these prisoners. You could write to them in prison and ask them how they were busted and what the govt left out of the public documents about their case that people should know about. You could totally do it anonymously. @dnl if you are interested, I will contact you with a method to accomplish this.
DNL2022-10-0545b1fcb0
There is no way to accomplish it without federal law enforcement scanning everything that enters and leaves a facility. That might not be a problem but it might not ever be a good idea for some of these people to talk to people who are going to post about it on the internet. I do think it would be interesting to do though.
Up2022-10-05edfae900
Okay, no big deal man, that’s good man, that’s good… just uhhhh, do me a favor, ***put you’re fucking hands up…*** 🙌
leblowz2022-10-05b0580310
11495635: It could be passed to an attorney and covered by attorney-client privilege.
.2022-10-05f132b2e0
"Agents were able to successfully trace the virtual flow of tryptocurrency proceeds" someone tell OP to stop copy pasting his posts and editing while hes high
fuck-the-IRS2022-10-050d5872a0
Mind explaining how cans the govt lose money they didn't earn? How exactly does the govt get to earn money if you do side jobs of repairing people's fridges, microwaves & whatever without licking the IRS and telling them how much you earn? It's absurd to even write that the IRS 'lost' money they never earnt in the first place... Is it the IRS employees that help you in your daily job to do the hard tasks? And why do they need to know how much you earn? Is it because they will gift you a grant equaling 20\% of your salary and so they need to know it? - blindborn people didn't lose the eyesight they never had & the IRS never lost any money. - the IRS bureaucrats never helped you lift the damn fridges on your truck so what do they want to be paid for? - what's exactly the job of IRS employees? Do they need to be paid because they work hard 12 hours a day to track down honest people who don't give them as much money as they want without doing any work for them? Fuck IRS.
Fucke up2022-10-0594ab2730
I mean dude I don’t think dnl would nail me on this, if you’re reading this, your ***online***, security has likely improved and depending that could perhaps be a ponderous motion notion kind of thing ahh mahh fuucjk
black2022-10-055a2fefd0
yo that who they be sending to deal with them white bois now??? there aint no ramps in the hood for them pigs on wheels lmfao he aint arrestin no BLACK KINGS
LiveOnPatrol2022-10-041a06db70
Local LE servers the warrent. You only meet us when you are lawfully detained. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkHBaplUW2OH3_jqltpOK8g - Pat Scott