Rowland Marcus Andrade
Founder and CEO of NAC Foundation, the company behind 'AML Bitcoin.' A jury convicted him of wire fraud and money laundering in 2025 over a ~$10M scheme; he was sentenced to 84 months (seven years) in prison.
Also known as: Marcus Andrade, Rowland Marcus Andrade
Bio
Rowland Marcus Andrade, of Texas, founded and led NAC Foundation (the National AtenCoin Foundation), which marketed "AML Bitcoin" as an anti-money-laundering cryptocurrency using biometric technology. The DOJ said that from 2014 to 2019 he raised about $10 million through false claims about the technology, its viability, and purported deals — including a fabricated arrangement with the Panama Canal Authority — and diverted more than $2 million to personal expenses. [1][2]
Legal outcome
After a five-week trial, a San Francisco jury convicted Andrade of wire fraud and money laundering in March 2025. In July 2025 he was sentenced to 84 months in federal prison plus three years of supervised release. (Lobbyist Jack Abramoff had earlier pleaded guilty over his role promoting AML Bitcoin.) [1][2]
Bracketed numbers refer to the numbered sources listed below.
Sources (2)
See also
Luke BelmarIndividualsCryptocurrency influencer Luke Belmar (@lukebelmar on X) became the subject of controversy following allegations related to the promotion of a memecoin. Critics on social media alleged that Belmar used a series of posts referencing a forthcoming cryptocurrency project and a large-scale airdrop to generate interest in a token without explicitly identifying a specific contract address. Belmar published multiple posts discussing an upcoming memecoin, describing plans for what he characterized as a major airdrop and making comparisons to other cryptocurrency projects. Because no contract address was publicly provided, several tokens emerged claiming association with his statements. Critics alleged that this ambiguity enabled speculation around multiple tokens while avoiding a direct endorsement of any particular asset.
- 2025 Czech government Bitcoin scandalOtherA political-corruption scandal in which the Czech Ministry of Justice, under minister Pavel Blažek, accepted a donation of 468 bitcoin (~$45M) in early 2025 from Tomáš Jiříkovský, a convicted darknet/drug figure, then sold part of it. After Deník N revealed the deal in May 2025, Blažek resigned, a criminal money-laundering investigation followed, and the government narrowly survived a no-confidence vote.
This page was last updated on Jun 15, 2026. View revision history.