KEENE, NH – A Keene man convicted of laundering millions of dollars in proceeds from romance scams and other internet frauds has been ordered to pay restitution to his victims and forfeit his proceeds.

According to a news release from United States Attorney Jane E. Young, District of New Hampshire’s office, Ian Freeman, 43, was ordered by U.S. District Court Judge Joseph LaPlante to pay restitution totaling $3,502,708.69 to 29 victims of his bitcoin money laundering scheme.

Young says Freeman laundered over ten million dollars from the schemes by exchanging U.S. dollars for bitcoin, and created a business catered to fraudsters by failing to register his business with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network as required by law, disabling the “know your customer” features on his bitcoin kiosks, and ensuring that bitcoin customers didn’t tell him what they did with their bitcoin. Young said by charging exorbitant fees, Freeman made more than a million dollars.

The court also issued a preliminary order of forfeiture of various other assets that were seized during the investigation.

Freeman was convicted by a federal jury in December of 2022 following a 10-day trial, and in October of 2023 was sentenced to 96 months in prison, two years of supervised release, and a fine of $40,000.

During the trial records and exhibits proved that as part of the conspiracy, Freeman and his co-conspirators opened and operated accounts at financial institutions in the names of various churches. Freeman instructed bitcoin customers, who were often victims of scams, to lie to the financial institutions and describe their deposits as church donations.

Freeman concealed his income from the IRS and paid no taxes from 2016-2019.