Syed Rahman summarises the key points
A court has sentenced the UK’s first person to be convicted of running an illegal crypto ATM operation to four years in prison.
Olumide Osunkoya was sentenced at London’s Southwark Crown Court for running multiple illegal crypto ATMs, falsifying documents and possessing criminal property between December 2021 and September 2023. He had pleaded guilty in September 2024.
Sentencing Osunkoya, Judge Gregory Perrins called his offending “extremely serious”, adding that when crypto ATMs are abused they are “little more than money laundering machines.” Osunkoya operated at least 11 unregistered machines, processing over £2.5 million in transactions. He earned up to 30% in commission on the transactions.
Osunkoya had applied in 2021 for a licence to operate crypto ATMs but was denied. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) warned him that running the machines without approval was illegal. But he ignored the warning and created a fake identity, “Yarik Wolnik,” which he used to continue his operations.
Osunkoya was arrested in September 2023 and £19,500 was found in his home, which he claimed was for household expenses. He also said he needed money for his sister’s cancer treatment, but no evidence was found to support this.
In court, his lawyer argued that he would struggle in prison as he suffered from severe sickle cell disease and needed to support his mother in Nigeria and his two-year-old daughter in London. The FCA, which brought the prosecution, has now requested legal proceedings to recover the money Osunkoya gained from his illegal activities.
Therese Chambers, the FCA’s joint executive director of enforcement, said the sentencing “sends a clear message: those who flout our rules, seek to evade detection and engage in criminal activity will face serious consequences.”
This sentencing follows a broader pattern of increased FCA enforcement in crypto-related cases; particularly those involving unregistered activity. Crypto ATMs, by their very nature, facilitate pseudonymous, cash-to-crypto transactions, which makes them highly attractive to those seeking to launder the proceeds of crime. The four-year sentence can be viewed as a sign that courts view such offences as serious economic crime, rather than regulatory missteps.
