American man sentenced to 51 months in prison for using Stripe to commit credit card fraud and transfer illicit funds via Bitcoin

on October 26, according to Bitcoin.com News, Timothy Wadsworth of Rochester, New York, was sentenced to 51 months in prison for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering, and ordered to pay approximately $811,000 in restitution.

The U.S. Department of Justice stated that between March and May 2020, Wadsworth used account information provided by an accomplice to initiate 310 unauthorized payments through payment service provider Stripe, totaling approximately $1.6736 million, with 116 transactions successfully processed amounting to roughly $730,700. He then transferred a portion of the funds into bank accounts under his control, purchased Bitcoin via Coinbase, and subsequently sent it to his accomplices.

Furthermore, his fraudulent activities also involved pandemic-era small business relief loans, Paycheck Protection Program loans, unemployment benefits, and fake romantic scams. The U.S. Department of Justice estimated that these related fraud schemes resulted in actual and anticipated losses totaling approximately $2.06 million between March 2020 and September 2021.