A recent announcement stated that Raul Rodriguez has been sentenced to 57 months in prison due to illegal activities conducted on the LocalBitcoins platform. Rodriguez was involved in helping in the conversion of drug profits into cash using cryptocurrency and was overseeing an unlicensed money transmission business.

Rodriguez, also known as raultiovigia, is a 44-year-old Miami resident who engaged in converting cash into bitcoin and other digital currencies for a fee as well as vice versa on the LocalBitcoins platform. Transactions conducted by Rodriguez amounted to at least $5,047,462 from 2016 to 2022, and during this time, he became the top user on the platform. Apart from the prison sentence of 57 months, he is facing three years of supervised release and a fine of $5,047,462.

For more than five years, Rodriguez operated an unregistered and unlicensed money transmission business. Some of his clients included a convicted drug trafficker and a professional money launderer.