Cryptocurrency Cases in the Eastern District of Texas

Federal crypto prosecutions are no longer confined to New York and California. The Eastern District of Texas — Tyler, Sherman, Plano, Beaumont — has a growing docket of digital-asset cases.

What’s actually being charged:

— Money laundering under 18 U.S.C. § 1956 and § 1957. Each transaction can be a separate count.

— Unlicensed money transmitting under 18 U.S.C. § 1960. Increasingly used against peer-to-peer crypto traders.

— Wire fraud under 18 U.S.C. § 1343 for crypto-related investment scams, pig-butchering, and rug pulls.

— Tax offenses for unreported crypto income. IRS-CI is active in East Texas.

The persistent misconception: that cryptocurrency is anonymous. It isn’t. Public blockchains are permanent records. Chainalysis, TRM Labs, and Elliptic can trace transactions across years and through mixers. Exchanges respond to subpoenas with KYC records linking wallets to real identities.

Dormant wallets are not safe. The act of moving stale proceeds — even years after the original conduct — is itself the predicate for a federal money laundering charge.