A man has been arrested in Victoria for conducting unregistered cryptocurrency trades.
On Tuesday morning, officers arrested the 38-year-old in his home in Cairnlea, north-west of Melbourne.
He was interviewed by police for operating an unregistered digital currency exchange despite receiving a cease and desist notice from AUSTRAC in November last year.
The man will appear in the Melbourne Magistrates' Court on 18 November.
When executing the arrest warrant, police seized a “substantial quantity of cash and false identification documents”, as well as a bitcoin ATM from a store in Braybrook.
A manager at the store confirmed to Information Age that the machine had been removed by police on Tuesday.
He also said they were in “full cooperation with authorities” but did not wish to go into details of the case beyond what has been shared by Victoria Police.
Section 76A of the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-terrorism Financing Act prohibits people from operating certain digital currency exchanges without registering with AUSTRAC.
The Act had been amended to regulate cryptocurrency providers in April last year.
Offences carry penalties of two years in prison and/or a fine of up to $105,000.
Alongside registering with AUSTRAC, cryptocurrency exchanges are required to verify customer identity, report suspicious behavior, and comply with record-keeping requirements.
