By Forum Staff
Mustafa Goklu, also known as “Mustangy,” was sentenced on Thursday in federal court in Brooklyn by the Hon Pamela Chen to 16 months’ imprisonment for money laundering and operating an unlicensed money transmitting business as part of a scheme to launder Bitcoin that Goklu, 50, believed to be the proceeds of drug trafficking. The Sunnyside resident was convicted of those charges after a jury trial in October 2022.
File Photo
Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Peace
In July 2018, Drug Enforcement Administration special agents identified an advertisement posted on the website “localbitcoins.com” where an individual with the username “Mustangy” offered to purchase up to $99,999 worth of Bitcoins (BTC), a type of digital currency also known as cryptocurrency, and convert them into U.S. currency for a fee. Law enforcement agents later identified Goklu as the individual using the username Mustangy. On July 11, 2018, a DEA special agent acting in an undercover capacity (the “UC”) began exchanging encrypted text messages with Goklu to arrange in-person exchanges of BTC to U.S. currency. The UC and the defendant subsequently met and engaged in seven transactions or attempted exchanges of BTC to cash over a nine-month period, culminating in Goklu’s arrest in April 2019. The UC indicated to the defendant on multiple occasions that the source of the BTC the defendant was exchanging was narcotics trafficking and that as part of the UC’s business he sold oxycodone, Adderall, and marijuana. The transactions occurred in Goklu’s parked Mercedes-Benz, at a coffee shop in Sunnyside, and at locations in Manhattan. The amounts exchanged at each transaction ranged from approximately $5,000 to $50,000 for a total of $133,000. During each transaction, the UC transferred BTC to Goklu’s cryptocurrency wallet, after which the defendant retained a seven or eight percent commission fee and provided the UC with the remaining amount in cash. The evidence introduced at trial also showed that the defendant was engaged in similar illicit Bitcoin exchanges with multiple other individuals.
“Drug trafficking would be less pervasive and lucrative if money launderers like the defendant did not enable washing the illegal proceeds of the deadly trade,” Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said.
