The New York district judge presiding over the criminal case against Ross Ulbricht, the alleged creator of underground online drug market Silk Road, has decreed that cryptocurrency Bitcoin is functionally the same thing as real money. Ulbricht had argued that he could not be charged for money laundering for his alleged part in creating Silk Road, as Bitcoin was not a real currency, but Judge Katherine Forrest rejected his defense. The money laundering statute is broad enough to encompass use of Bitcoins in financial transactions, Forrest wrote in a ruling released on Wednesday. Any other reading would-in light of Bitcoins sole raison dêtre be nonsensical.
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