A California man has been indicted on multiple charges in relation to him operating as a “bitcoin exchanger” between 2014 and 2016.

Jacob Burrell Campos, 21, was arrested Thursday while entering the U.S. at the Mexican border. A court ordered he be held without bail on 31 charges relating to his bitcoin dealings.

In an indictment dated June 2017 but only now released following the arrest of Compos, the U.S. Department of Justice claimed that between January 2015 to April 2016 Burrell sold about $750,000 worth of bitcoin to 900 individuals without a license.

Campos is described as a bitcoin “exchanger,” not operating an actual bitcoin exchange. He’s further accused of wiring at least $900,000 in 30 transactions from an account in the U.S. to Hong Kong exchange Bitfinex to buy bitcoin for clients, which Justice claims is “international money laundering.”

Burrell should have registered with the Department of Treasury and followed the anti-money-laundering protocol, Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Ciaffa said in a statement, including reporting any suspicious cash transactions to the government.

At first glance, the indictment raises a number of questions particularly given that it initially appears that Burrell was doing nothing more than privately exchanging bitcoin for cash as opposed to running an actual exchange. But it would appear that it was the type of exchanges he was facilitating that raised attention.

The indictment notes that Burrell was accepting cash for bitcoin “with no questions asked” in return for a 5 percent transaction fee, way above rates charged by licenses bitcoin exchanges. The implication in doing so is that Burrell was primarily offering services for illicit purposes to those who either wished to stay off the radar or couldn’t obtain a regular license bitcoin exchange account, or both.

“Burrell’s activities ‘blew a giant hole’ through the legal framework of U.S. anti-money laundering laws by soliciting and introducing into the U.S. banking system close to $1 million in unregulated cash,” Ciaffa added.

Of the 31 counts Burrell is facing, 28 of the charges relate to money laundering, with each charge carrying a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $500,000 fine.

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