Former Shreveport Chiropractor and Son Headed for Prison Over Bitcoin Scheme

Bitcoin has to be one of the most confusing currencies of all time.  As I understand it, you can purchase Bitcoins with real world cash, then you use the digital-only currency for online transactions.  According to Cnet, they are accepted at over 100,000 merchants worldwide.  Apparently, you can buy beer, guns, even funerals with Bitcoins!

Unfortunately, Bitcoin is also one of the most popular forms of payment for criminals that use the internet as their seedy back alley.  It's been rumored to be the favorite currency of the "Deep Web,"  a place that specializes in weapons, drugs, child porn and more.  Enter Randall B. Lord.

Randall and his son, Michael A. Lord, are headed to prison for Bitcoin related offenses.  According to KTBS, the Lords admitted that from at least 2013 to 2015, they took cash, money orders and mother forms of payment and exchanged those funds for bitcoin.  The problem is, those transactions weren't reported to the agency that monitors such affairs to make sure the money isn't used for drugs, terrorism, or other such nasty things.  Also the son was selling drugs, and using the Bitcoins for payment.

Randall will be serving 46 months in a federal prison, and his son will serve 106 months in prison after they both pleaded guilty to conspiring to operate an unlicensed money servicing business. Michael Lord also pleaded guilty to conspiring to illegally sell prescription drugs.