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The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Indiana has dropped all criminal and civil charges against a Noblesville businessman who was charged with multiple counts of money laundering in connection to an alleged operation of an unlicensed cryptocurrency exchange.
Back in October, a federal grand jury returned a superseding indictment charging 53-year-old Maximiliano Pilipis with five counts of money laundering and two counts of willfully failing to file a tax return.
But on Thursday, Barnes & Thornburg, which represents Pilipis, announced all criminal and civil charges were dismissed against their client, an early adopter of Bitcoin cryptocurrency.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office did not immediately respond to The Indiana Lawyer’s request for comment.
“We’re proud to clear Mr. Pilipis’s name after years under a cloud of investigation and prosecution,” said Katie Matsoukas, white collar, compliance and investigations co-chair at Barnes & Thornburg. “As digital currencies emerged while regulations lagged behind, early adopters who operated in good faith had to navigate evolving legal frameworks. Mr. Pilipis should never have been subject to this retroactive enforcement and unjust application of the law.”
Pilipis said the victory brings an end to painful process that spanned many years.
“It is personally impactful, but it is also a meaningful moment for the Bitcoin community and for others working to innovate with integrity in emerging spaces within uncertain legal or regulatory environments,” Pilipis said in a news release.
Pilipis operated AurumXchange, a virtual currency exchange, from 2009 to 2013. The platform allowed individuals to exchange Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies for U.S. dollars and other government-issued and virtual currencies.
Though federal law requires that money-transmitting businesses be registered with the U.S. Treasury Department, AurumXchange was allegedly not registered.
AurumXchange facilitated more than 100,000 transactions totaling more than $30 million, prosecutors said, and Pilipis collected millions of dollars in fees, including more than 10,000 Bitcoin, which at the time had a value of about $1.2 million, The Lawyer previously reported.
Prosecutors also said some of the funds passing through AurumXchange allegedly came from accounts on Silk Road, an anonymous “dark web” marketplace federal authorities shut down in 2013.
In a motion to dismiss the case against Pilipis, attorneys argued Pilipis’s business was not subject to registration requirements under regulations that were in place at the time.
District court Judge Jane Magnus-Stinson granted the motion to dismiss the case in February 2025, agreeing that AurumXchange was not subject to registration requirements when it was in operation.
Though it originally appealed the dismissal, the justice department withdrew its challenge and moved to dismiss the charges on April 22.
Judge Magnus-Stinson granted those motions and dismissed the case with prejudice on April 23.
In addition to Matsoukas, the team representing Pilipis included partners Josh Minkler and Aly Hughes, along with counsel Katie Mills and associate Anne Parrish.
The team is now working to secure the return of Pilipis’s assets.
The case is United States of America vs. Maximiliano Pilipis, 1:24-cr-00009-JMS.
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