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From the article: The IRS posted its advertisement on LocalCryptos in June 2020, with the Mr Coins account offering to buy Bitcoin at above-market prices, via the mail. Sellers were instructed to use encrypted messaging apps Wickr or WhatsApp to contact the spoof trader.

I am guessing since the IRS was involved that he was avoiding taxes through this.

edit: Grammar

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Neither article says what he was charged with

But the source article has way more details

Still shit reporting, but the source is just forbes blogging masquarading as news

Only if you assume it was an attempt at reporting and not a government psyop meant to discourage bitcoin use for potentially illegal activities.

I would assume the former as they used Monero predominantly, which would not discourage anyone because Monero users understand how little accountability there is and when it applies, and because of the amounts.

At this amount, the only conspiracy would be that this will be used by the IRS to convince Congress that it needs a larger budget to do more of this kind of investigation, because cryptocurrencies are going private, finally.

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