SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Jack Abramoff, a once-powerful lobbyist who spent time in federal prison for fraud and corruption, has been charged in a San Francisco court in an investor fraud case involving cryptocurrency and lobbying disclosure, federal authorities announced Thursday.
U.S. Attorney David Anderson said Abramoff, 61, of Silver Spring, Maryland, has agreed to plead guilty to criminal conspiracy charges and a criminal violation of the Lobbying Disclosure Act in the case involving a cryptocurrency called AML Bitcoin.
A second man, Roland Marcus Andrade, 42, of Missouri City, Texas, was charged with fraud and money laundering in an indictment that was returned by the grand jury on June 20 and was unsealed Thursday, Anderson said.
Abramoff and Andrade could not immediately be reached for comment.
Andrade said his cryptocurrency called AML Bitcoin used technologies that complied with the federal government’s anti-money laundering laws and announced an initial offering of AML Bitcoin in the amount of $100 million, federal officials said.