LAS VEGAS (AP) - A 30-year-old Las Vegas man accused of trading the digital currency bitcoin to launder drug money has pleaded not guilty to federal charges in San Diego.
Records show that Morgan Rockcoons was ordered held Thursday by U.S. Magistrate Judge Jan Adler in San Diego pending a March 6 detention hearing on charges also including operating an unlicensed money transmitting business.
Rockcoons’ attorney, David Chesnoff in Las Vegas, was in court Friday and not immediately available to comment.
Rockcoons was arrested Feb. 9 in Las Vegas in what Chesnoff told the Las Vegas Review-Journal may be the first case of its kind in Nevada.
Rockcoons is accused of accepting $14,500 from an undercover officer in exchange for $9,200 worth of bitcoin in a bid to conceal profits from the illegal sale of hash oil.
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