International Crimes: E-Currency subject to Licensing Requirement

A trial court in the District of Columbia, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 37602, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA v. E-GOLD, LTD, et al., for violation of 18 USC 1960 which makes it a crime to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business. According to the trial court, a business can clearly engage in money transmitting without limiting its transactions to cash or currency and would commit a crime if it did so without being licensed. " The Court rejected the claim that 18 USC 1960 does not apply to their operations because they never deal in cash or currency.

Last year, the DOJ announced Indictment of E-Gold as follows: "A federal grand jury in Washington, D.C. has indicted two companies operating a digital currency business and their owners on charges of money laundering, conspiracy, and operating an unlicensed money transmitting business, Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeffrey A. Taylor announced today. The four-count indictment, handed down on April 24, 2007, and unsealed today, charges E‑Gold Ltd; Gold & Silver Reserve, Inc.; and their owners Dr. Douglas L. Jackson, of Satellite Beach, Fla.; Reid A. Jackson, of Melbourne, Fla.; and Barry K. Downey, of Woodbine, Md., each with one count of conspiracy to launder monetary instruments, one count of conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business, one count of operating an unlicensed money transmitting business under federal law and one count of money transmission without a license under D.C. law."