liberty-reserve-logoIt’s a common enough belief in the MLM underbelly that hiding offshore is protection enough.

You’re off in your little hidey-hole, there’s no way known US regulators are going to come after you… right?

Arthur Budovski ran the payment processor Liberty Reserve from Costa Rica.

Through a joint operation with authorities in Costa Rica and Spain (where Budovski was hiding out), US regulators finally caught up with Budovski and had him extradited late last year.

Budovski was indicted earlier this year and now faces criminal charges for operating a $6 billion dollar money laundering racket.

Budofsky was charged with one count of running an illegal unlicensed money transmission business and two conspiracy counts.

In an effort to have the case dropped, Budovski filed a “Waaah I wasn’t in the US, how dare you come after me!” motion to dismiss.

He accused the Department of Justice of overreaching ‘by charging him over conduct outside the United States and not covered by that country’s laws‘.

Budovski also argued that

Liberty’s “virtual currency” did not qualify as “funds” under U.S. laws against money laundering.

The Judge rejected that argument last Wednesday, on the grounds that Liberty Reserve targeted US citizens.

“While the advent of the web may create a theoretical concern about the extraterritorial reach of U.S. criminal laws, in this case the indictment has sufficiently alleged the conduct of a criminal business with the aim of causing harm to U.S. citizens and U.S. interests,” the judge wrote.

Budovski’s case will now proceed to trial.

Last last year Liberty Reserve’s Tech Chief was jailed for 5 years. Earlier this year another IT employee was jailed for three.

Another two have pleaded guilty but have yet to be sentenced. The remaining four’s cases (Budovski included) are still working their way through the courts.

As the Founder of Liberty Reserve and with news of his motion to dismiss being denied, it’s looking increasingly obvious that Budovski is going away for a very long time.