Virtual currency can’t ‘be hidden under a mattress like cash and gold bars’: Miami judge
By Jenn Gidman | Newser Staff
Bitcoins may be valuable in tech circles, but to a judge in Miami-Dade County, the virtual money is nothing more than shadow currency. On Monday, Judge Teresa Mary Pooler discarded felony charges against website designer Michell Espinoza, who had been accused of transmitting and laundering $1,500 in bitcoins—an impossible-to-prove charge since bitcoin isn’t actual “tangible wealth” that can “be hidden under a mattress like cash and gold bars,” per the Miami Herald. Espinoza had allegedly transferred the bitcoins to undercover detectives for cash, the Washington Post reports; the detectives said they were going to scoop up stolen credit-card numbers with them. The paper explains how Florida law forbids exchanging money for “illicit” activity such as the credit card fraud Espinoza was accused of trying to abet.
