Ilya Borisov, an active token artist, has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for money laundering through NFTs, and lawmakers have frozen all of his assets.

Authorities charged Latvian NFT artist Ilya Borisov with money laundering and theft of 8.7 million euros. According to legal authorities, Ilya Borisov’s income of 8.7 million euros was obtained through illegal and money laundering activities. Through his website Art is Crime, Borissov explained how the government froze his bank accounts without prior notice. Borisov earned this amount by selling 3,557 NFT tokens.

Read more: What does the future of NFTs look like in 2022?

Details of money laundering case through NFT

According to Borisov, the money laundering case through NFT started in February this year, but the authorities filed the complaints on May 9. Currently, we are witnessing the lack of tax regulations and transparent cryptography. Borisov stated that he contacted the State Revenue Service of Latvia (VID) to legally cash out his income. At the end of 2021, he was ordered to pay an income tax of 2.2 million euros.

The state revenue agency VID advised Borissov to declare himself as a “self-employed” person. With the help of his lawyer, Borisov managed to get rid of the bank account blocking order. The court granted Borisov access to his assets on June 30, and Borisov’s personal accounts were never frozen. After some time, however, it became clear that the main investigator of the case had resigned, and the new prosecutors who joined the case also brought an immediate order to confiscate Borisov’s property.

Borissov, however, emphasized that none of the prosecutors had attempted to contact him regarding the process of the case. In this regard, he added:

We filed our appeal against the decision to freeze my accounts on June 3, 2022. This protest was registered with all the available documents from the case as well as all my transactions and activities as an artist.

Borisov had tried to replace the investigator of the case, but the court did not accept his request. Borisov believed that the case, in addition to the stress of permanent loss of assets, had also taken a severe emotional toll on him. The interference of this issue with the war between Russia and Ukraine, as well as the death of Borisov’s father, also added to the severity of the damage caused to him.

The Latvian artist believes blockchain has opened up endless opportunities for artists, but they will still face legal challenges.

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Source: finbold