A senior pastor at the Hope Cathedral in Jackson, New York, submitted himself to FBI. As a former chairman of a credit union he supposedly helped bitcoin extortionists to capitalise on their gains.

Rev. Trevón Gross, 46, is accused of receiving $150,000 in bribes to organise exchange operations for the illegal bitcoin market Coin.mx. The maximum sentence the offence carries is up to 30 years in prison, LawFuel reports.

As a chairman of a small credit union Helping Other People Excel (HOPE), working mostly with low-income customers, he allowed the money launders Anthony Murgio and Yuri Lebedev to take over control of the organisation to run banking operations for Coin.mx. One of the exchange founders became a member of the credit union’s board of directors. The overall turnover of the scheme equals millions of dollars in bitcoin equivalent.

According to FBI, the unlicensed bitcoin exchange was under control of one Gery Shalon, who is accused of orchestrating a massive hacking scheme. The hackers stole personal data of more than 100 million people. Among all, they successfully broke into the data bank of JPMorgan and got access to about 83 million customer profiles. They allegedly sold the data back to some owners for a ransom in bitcoins.

Now all participants of the scheme will face the consequences of their actions. Pastor Gross surrendered to FBI. The trial of Coin.mx organisers is scheduled on 31 of October. They pleaded not guilty.