Gery Shalon Pays for Illegal Bitcoin and Casino Ops

The ish hit the fan two years ago when Gery Shalon landed on the radar of the US authorities due to his association with the rogue casino group, Affactive. Earlier this year, the 33-year-old crook agreed to settle with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for $403 million, but this wasn’t the end. Shalon faced accusations of illegal online gambling, identity theft, computer hacking and the operation of an unauthorized Bitcoin exchange, Coin.mx, within the US borders of Florida.

Recent History

This week, Shalon’s partner in crime, Anthony Murgio, was sentenced to 66 months in prison for his association with the illegal Bitcoin operation. Shalon was previously released from Manhattan federal prison, which has been his home for the last two years, and the monetary settlement reduced his sentence to time served. Until the fine is paid up, Shalon’s US traveling privileges were revoked, but it’s anyone’s guess as to whether he’ll head for Israel or his birthplace, Russia.

He wasn’t out of the woods yet, as the US sought information regarding the assets he earned through illegal operations. Investigations uncovered Swiss bank accounts with $100 million, which have since been frozen and seized by US authorities. In total, the government dug up 81 bank accounts located in several locations around the world including Cyprus, Georgia, Switzerland and the Virgin Islands. The millions of dollars found in those accounts went to the US Treasury.

Coin.mx

Shalon was the owner of the exchange and had the nerve to run it within US borders. His online gambling partners, Joshua Aaron and Ziv Orenstein, were the main guys behind Affactive’s US online casinos and, as part of his settlement, he must hand over all the sordid details of the gambling operations to the government. A rat til the end, eh?

Sources:

‘Israeli Media: JPMorgan Hack Perpetrator to Pay $403 Million to US Authorities’, Naomi Barzel, financemagnates.com, May 22, 2017