RICHARDSON (WBAP/KLIF News) – A Richardson man faces up to five years in prison after pleading guilty this week to running an illegal business that converted cash to cryptocurrency.
Prosecutors indicted 42-year-old Mark Hopkins, also known as ‘Doctor Bitcoin’, in March on one federal count of operating an unlicensed money transmitting business.
In one instance, a customer’s funds were linked to a Nigerian lottery scam.
According to Acting U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Prerak Shah, in September of 2019, a customer identified in court documents as “M.H” approached Hopkins to convert U.S. dollars to BTC.
The money Mr. Hopkins received from M.H. stemmed from a lottery scam he was running with a coconspirator in the West African county.
Court documents state Hopkins promised not to get involved in the details of M.H.’s business dealings, but told M.H. how to circumvent financial institution reporting requirements by keeping deposits under $9,500 and directed M.H. to lie to financial institutions about the purpose of the business.
“I’m set up as a marketing company, so tell them you’re paying for a marketing campaign,” he said.
Documents show Hopkins conducted 37 transactions with M.H. converting between $550,000 and $1.5 million.
Hopkins was not licensed to operate the business in Texas and was not registered with the treasury department.
Prosecutors said that his customer’s personal information nor the source of the cash was ever verified.
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