First criminal case brought over illegal cryptocurrency ATMs

The City regulator has brought its first criminal charges against an individual for allegedly running a network of illegal cryptocurrency ATMs.
Olumide Osunkoya is accused by the Financial Conduct Authority of unlawfully operating machines that processed £2.6 million of crypto transactions between the end of 2021 and September 8 last year.
These ATMs had not been registered with the regulator, in a breach of money laundering and terrorist financing rules, the authority said. Osunkoya, 45, who lives in London, is due to appear at Westminster magistrates’ court on September 30.
Crypto ATMs are kiosks that allow people to convert cash into cryptocurrencies and back again and are tied to users’ digital wallets, rather than traditional bank accounts. Regulators worldwide are clamping down on the machines amid concerns that they facilitate money laundering and other forms of financial crime.
The regulator said in July last year that it had carried out an operation with other law enforcement agencies to inspect 34 sites and shut down 26 machines. Last month police in Kent said they had charged a man for operating a single unregistered machine in what was a first for the UK.
The FCA said that there were no legal crypto kiosk operators in the UK, implying that any machines here were being run unlawfully. Therese Chambers, its joint executive director of enforcement and market oversight, said: “Our message today is clear. If you’re illegally operating a crypto ATM, we will stop you. If you’re using a crypto ATM, you are handing your money directly to criminals. Criminals can exploit crypto ATMs to launder money globally.”
Cryptocurrencies exist entirely as computer code and are not controlled by central banks or governments. This has raised concerns among regulators that the market for digital assets is a “Wild West” that can be exploited by criminals for laundering, fraud and other scams.
Blow-ups such as the collapse in 2022 of FTX, which was one of the world’s biggest crypto exchanges, have increased concern among regulators about the safety of the industry. Sam Bankman-Fried, 32, who ran and co-founded FTX, was found guilty of fraud and this year was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
As concerns grow, authorities have increased their oversight of what are still largely unregulated cryptomarkets and have warned consumers about the risks they face if they buy digital currencies such as bitcoin, which typically have volatile prices. The FCA has long said that cryptoassets have no inherent value.