Businessman Charged with Conspiring to Own Unlicensed Money Transmitting Business

NEWARK, N.J. – A businessman and former resident of Utah has been charged with illegally operating an unlicensed money transmitting business, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger announced today.

Christopher James Scanlon, 43, originally from Utah and now living in Florida, is indicted on one count of conspiring to control and own an unlicensed money transmitting business. Scanlon was arrested at Miami International Airport on Oct. 10, 2024, and made his initial appearance in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida on Oct. 11, 2024. He was arraigned today before U.S. Magistrate Judge Lede Dunn Wettre in Newark federal court and pleaded not guilty.

According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:

Scanlon is the founder and chief executive officer of businesses Aurae Lifestyle and Club Swan. From as early as 2015 through 2019, Scanlon controlled a series of legal entities – PMA Media Group Inc.; AU Card LLC; AU Card Ltd., and Nvayo Ltd., (collectively, the “AU Entities”) – that he operated as a money transmitting business to provide fiat and cryptocurrency financial services to customers of Aurae Lifestyle. Scanlon served as a customer service representative for several high-net-worth Aurae Lifestyle customers. Scanlon operated Aurae Lifestyle during this time period without appropriately registering as a money transmitting business with FinCEN.

At times, Scanlon agreed to conduct transactions on behalf of customers through other customers’ accounts and performed at least one “off the books” transaction for a customer who was later indicted for operating a large-scale cryptocurrency mining scheme. Scanlon exchanged messages with the customer, who requested that the transaction be kept off of the customer’s account ledger as a “Ghost” transaction. Scanlon agreed, and upon completing the transaction, the customer asked Scanlon to confirm that the transaction was not posted on the ledger of his Aurae Lifestyle account, asking Scanlon: “Ghost, right?,” to which Scanlon confirmed: “Boo.”

The conspiracy count carries a maximum term of five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 or twice the pecuniary gain to the defendant or loss to the victims, whatever is greatest.

U.S. Attorney Sellinger credited special agents of IRS - Criminal Investigation, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Jennifer L. Piovesan, with the investigation.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Megan Linares of the Cybercrime Unit, and Aaron Webman of the Economic Crimes Unit, in Newark.

The charges and allegations contained in the indictment are merely accusations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.