KEENE, NH – A Keene man convicted in a money laundering case was scheduled be sentenced next Monday, but the US Attorney’s office for New Hampshire says that’s been pushed back.

Ian Freeman was convicted by a federal jury in December 2022 for laundering over $10 million of proceeds from romance scams and other internet fraud, by exchanging US dollars for Bitcoin.

Jessica Kuron, Public Affairs Officer at the US Attorney’s office says Freeman and others involved in the scheme opened and operated accounts at financial institutions in the names of various churches, including the Shire Free Church, the Church of the Invisible Hand, the Crypto Church of New Hampshire, and the NH Peace Church.

Freeman instructed bitcoin customers, who were often the victim of the scams, to lie to financial institutions and describe their deposits as church donations.

Freeman and five others were arrested in March of 2021 by federal authorities. Two Keene residents, Aria DiMezzo and Nobody, formerly known as Rich Paul, along with Andrew and Renee Spinella were among those arrested and previously pled guilty to related charges. Charges of being a co-conspirator were dropped against the 6th person who was arrested.

DiMezzo was sentenced to 18 months in prison earlier this year for her role in the scheme.

At the time of Freeman’s conviction last December sentencing was scheduled for April 14th. That was later pushed to July 17th, and according to Kuron is now scheduled for August 17th. She did not provide any further details as to why it was pushed.