Unregistered Crypto ATMs Lead to Landmark UK Prosecution

A British regulator has charged a London man for operating several unlicensed crypto ATMs.

Olumide Osunkoya, 45, has been charged with a running series of unlicensed machines that let users purchase cryptocurrency or convert money into crypto assets, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) announced Tuesday (Sept. 10).

According to an FCA news release, Osunkoya processed $3.4 million in cryptocurrency transactions at multiple locations between December 2021 and September of last year without the proper registration. The U.K. has no legal crypto ATMs, the authority noted.

The FCA said this is its first criminal prosecution relating to unregistered cryptoasset activity under its 2017 money laundering/terror financing regulations, as well as the first charges against someone for operating crypto ATMs in the U.K..

“Our message today is clear. If you’re illegally operating a crypto ATM, we will stop you,” Therese Chambers, joint executive director of enforcement and market oversight at the FCA, said in the release. “If you’re using a crypto ATM, you are handing your money directly to criminals. Criminals can exploit crypto ATMs to launder money globally.”

The FCA’s announcement comes as regulators on both sides of the Atlantic are warning about crypto ATMs. Last week, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released data showing that the amount of money consumers lost to scams involving bitcoin ATM machines jumped to $114 million last year, a tenfold increase since 2020.

Crypto has become a top payment method for a variety of scams, the FTC said, adding: “Widespread access to [bitcoin ATMs (BTMs)] has helped make this possible.”

In other crypto crime news, the FBI announced this week that the number of cryptocurrency-related complaints made up 10% of all financial fraud complaints last year, but half of the total losses.

That is due in part to the use of crypto in investment scams that see victims accumulating “massive debt” to cover their losses, the FBI said in its Cryptocurrency Fraud Report.

In all, losses to financial fraud involving the use of cryptocurrency jumped 45% in 2023, climbing to $5.6 billion, the report showed. The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center received 69,468 complaints from the public related to the use of crypto.

“The decentralized nature of cryptocurrency, the speed of irreversible transactions, and the ability to transfer value around the world make cryptocurrency an attractive vehicle for criminals, while creating challenges to recover stolen funds,” Michael D. Nordwall, assistant director of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division, wrote in the report. “Once an individual sends a payment, the recipient owns the cryptocurrency and often quickly transfers it into an account overseas for cash out purposes.”