ALEXANDRIA, Va.–A credit union with alleged ties to a Bitcoin exchange, money laundering and a phony front company has been shut down.
NCUA has liquidated Helping Other People Excel (H.O.P.E.) Federal Credit Union of Jackson, N.J. The $626,529 credit union has been operating under conservatorship since October, with NCUA saying it determined “it was insolvent and had no prospect for restoring viable operations.”
Earlier this year the FBI said it was investigating Anthony Murgio and Yuri Ledebev for taking control of the credit union as early as 2013 and using it to run a Bitcoin exchange service called Coin.mx in which people could pay a fee and exchange cash for Bitcoins.
"In doing so," an FBI release said, "they knowingly exchanged cash for people whom they believed may be engaging in criminal activity,” the FBI said.
Allegedly, Coin.mx was involved with at least $1.8 million in such exchanges, with transfers of money to accounts in Eastern Europe, Cyprus and Hong Kong.
At the time of liquidation, the credit union, chartered in 1978 to serve a low-income membership, had 110 members.