The US Department of Justice issued a press release on Tuesday detailing the RG Coins Cryptocurrency Exchange scam. The document confirms the detention of the exchange’s owner — Rossen Iossifov.

US District Court Judge, Robers Weir, set the verdict. For his role in defrauding US citizens, Iossifov is sentenced to 10 years in prison. More specifically, he received a ruling of 121 months in prison. Out of which, 85% must be served on US soil, behind bars.

The evidence at the trial proved that Iossifov willingly set up the scheme. In addition, it proved his assistance to frauds and brought to light steps taken to shield himself from a trial.

So far, evidence showed at least five of Iossifov’s top clients in Bulgaria were Romanian scammers. The frauds belong to a criminal group called the Alexandria (Romania) Online Auction Fraud (AOAF) Network.

The scheme worked by posting fake ads on popular online sales and auction sites quoting high-cost items that didn’t exist. When victims transferred payments, the frauds would accept the funds, swap them to crypto, and then launder the funds.

Finally, Evidence also confirms that Iossifov laundered close to $5 million in crypto for four out of the five foreign scammers in three years. This included over $7 million in funds stolen from US victims. Iossifov himself made more than $184,000 from the entire scam.