Anthony Murgio, the operator of the now-disgraced bitcoin exchange Coin.mx, has been sentenced to five-and-a-half years in prison following his guilty plea in January.

Murgio, a 33-year-old from Tampa, Florida, was arrested in July 2015 on charges of breaching federal anti-money laundering laws and regulations, as well as on the allegation that he enabled criminal activity by exchanging cash for bitcoins for victims of ransomware attacks.

The case, which has long fascinated followers on the cryptocurrency community, had an interesting twist: Not only did Murgio run a dubious bitcoin exchange, but along with co-accused Yuri Lebedev he was alleged to have illegally obtained control of the Helping Other People Excel Federal Credit Union as a way to launder his dirty money. Along with Lebedev, Murgio was alleged to have bribed a pastor by the name of Trevon Gross to obtain control of the credit union.

Proving perhaps that he wasn’t a criminal mastermind, Murgio saw his downfall when a serious increase in funds flowing through the credit union came to the attention of the National Credit Union Administration.

The case is also notable for Murgio’s attempts to have the charges dismissed by arguing that bitcoin was not a currency for the purposes of federal law prohibiting the operation of unlicensed money transmitting businesses.

“Mr. Murgio led an effort based on ambition and greed” constructed on a “pyramid of lies,” U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan in Manhattan is reported to have said during the sentencing hearing.

A lawyer representing Murgio said that they were pleased with the sentence, telling Coindesk that “the judge dramatically departed from the government’s requested sentence of over 10 years of prison time. Although we had hoped for an even lower sentence, we are pleased she made such a dramatic departure, and in so doing, we believe she validated points we raised in our sentencing submission and at the hearing today.”

It’s not clear from reports where Murgio will be spending his sentence, but it’s fairly certain that wherever it is, it won’t accept bitcoin as a form of payment.

Image: Coin.mx