New York federal prosecutors allege in an unsealed indictment that Trevor Gross, a New Jersey pastor at Hope Cathedral and Chairman of a credit union, was bribed $150,000 by illegal bitcoin traders to complete transactions for Coin.mx.
The unregistered bitcoin exchange was reportedly behind the hacking of a major bank that affected up to 83 million customers.
The indictment alleges that the bitcoin operators bribed Gross to use the credit union to process transactions. Then the pastor assisted them in getting named directors of the credit union and turned over control of the credit union to them to continue the illegal transactions. The credit union was liquidated in November.
Gross faces 30 years in jail for the charges.