A 37-year-old woman was convicted Friday by a federal jury in Santa Ana of five counts of money laundering and one count of operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business.
Thu Beaton, also known as Hannah Beaton, of Anaheim, met with an undercover Homeland Security Investigations special agent posing as a drug dealer, prosecutors said. During their first completed transaction in February 2020, the undercover agent told defendant that he obtained his bitcoin from selling cocaine to college students.
Beaton told the undercover agent not to speak too loudly because she did not want to be arrested before proceeding to give the undercover agent approximately $45,000 in cash. Afterward, she continued to communicate with the undercover agent about future transactions, prosecutors said.
Beaton then exchanged cash for bitcoin with the undercover agent several more times. In subsequent transactions, defendant asked the undercover agent how he sold his cocaine and explained to the undercover agent that she laundered money through a casino, prosecutors said.
In total, Beaton swapped nearly $500,000 in cash for bitcoin with the undercover agent whom she believed was a drug dealer, prosecutors said. The offenses occurred from October 2019 to May 2022.
Beaton faces a maximum sentence of five years in federal prison for operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business and up to 20 years for each count of money laundering, prosecutors said. She is scheduled to be sentenced March 10 by U.S. District Judge Fred W. Slaughter.
