United States v. Goklu

CourtCourt of Appeals for the Second Circuit
DecidedApril 7, 2026
Docket24-767
StatusPublished

This text of United States v. Goklu (United States v. Goklu) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Goklu, (2d Cir. 2026).

Opinion

24-767 United States v. Goklu

United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit

August Term 2025 Argued: February 9, 2026 Decided: April 7, 2026

No. 24-767

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Appellee, v. MUSTAFA GOKLU, AKA MUSTANGY, Defendant-Appellant.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York No. 19-cr-00386 Pamela K. Chen, Judge.

Before: PARK and MERRIAM, Circuit Judges, and MATSUMOTO, District Judge. *

Judge Kiyo A. Matsumoto, of the United States District Court for *

the Eastern District of New York, sitting by designation. A jury convicted Mustafa Goklu of money laundering and operating an unlicensed money transmitting business based on a series of bitcoin-for-cash exchanges with an undercover officer. Goklu raises three challenges to his conviction: (1) The district court violated his right to an impartial jury by empaneling a juror who expressed a positive view toward law enforcement and a negative view toward financial crimes; (2) The evidence was insufficient to convict him of operating an unlicensed money transmitting business because a payment of cash for bitcoin is not “money transmitting”; and (3) The district court violated Rule 30 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure by instructing the jury after Goklu’s closing argument that exchanging bitcoin for cash can constitute “transferring funds.” We reject all three challenges. The district court acted within its broad discretion to empanel a juror who said he would try his best to consider the evidence impartially. Moreover, Goklu’s exchanges of bitcoin for cash constituted “money transmitting,” so the district court did not abuse its discretion in giving this legally correct jury instruction.

Goklu also challenges his sentence. But he has finished serving his term of imprisonment, and he raises no challenge to his term or conditions of supervised release, so his sentencing challenges are moot. Accordingly, we DISMISS Goklu’s appeal as moot in part and otherwise AFFIRM the judgment of the district court.

MATTHEW BRISSENDEN, Matthew W. Brissenden, P.C., Garden City, NY, for Defendant-Appellant.

FRANCISCO J. NAVARRO, Assistant United States Attorney (Dylan A. Stern, Assistant United States Attorney, on the brief), for

2 Joseph Nocella, Jr., United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Brooklyn, NY, for Appellee.

PARK, Circuit Judge: A jury convicted Mustafa Goklu of money laundering and operating an unlicensed money transmitting business based on a series of bitcoin-for-cash exchanges with an undercover officer. Goklu raises three challenges to his conviction: (1) The district court violated his right to an impartial jury by empaneling a juror who expressed a positive view toward law enforcement and a negative view toward financial crimes; (2) The evidence was insufficient to convict him of operating an unlicensed money transmitting business because a payment of cash for bitcoin is not “money transmitting”; and (3) The district court violated Rule 30 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure by instructing the jury after Goklu’s closing argument that exchanging bitcoin for cash can constitute “transferring funds.” We reject all three challenges. The district court acted within its broad discretion to empanel a juror who said he would try his best to consider the evidence impartially. Moreover, Goklu’s exchanges of bitcoin for cash constituted “money transmitting,” so the district court did not abuse its discretion in giving this legally correct jury instruction.

Goklu also challenges his sentence. But he has finished serving his term of imprisonment, and he raises no challenge to his term or conditions of supervised release, so his sentencing challenges are moot. Accordingly, we dismiss Goklu’s appeal as moot in part and otherwise affirm the judgment of the district court.

3 I. BACKGROUND

A. Factual Background

In 2018 and 2019, Goklu ran a business charging commission fees to exchange bitcoin for cash. He advertised his business on localbitcoins.com, a website connecting bitcoin buyers and sellers. In July 2018, the DEA began investigating Goklu after seeing his ads, which offered to exchange significantly larger amounts of bitcoin than others in the same area.

Over the next eight months, undercover DEA agents arranged several exchanges with Goklu. Special Agent Patrick O’Kain messaged Goklu on Signal—an encrypted chat application for smartphones—to set up a meeting to exchange O’Kain’s bitcoin for cash. They met in Manhattan and got into Goklu’s car, where Goklu told the agent to “close the door, man, the cops, we’re not drug dealers. We’re buying Bitcoin.” App’x at 354. O’Kain understood that to mean that Goklu “was concerned about being identified by the cops.” Id. O’Kain transferred about $5,000 worth of bitcoin from his cryptocurrency wallet to Goklu’s, and Goklu then handed $4,620 in cash over to O’Kain, reflecting an 8% commission.

Agent O’Kain met Goklu repeatedly in the following months. Each time, O’Kain transferred bitcoin to Goklu, who exchanged the value of the bitcoin in cash, minus his commission. O’Kain initially told Goklu that the bitcoin came from an online business, but during their fourth meeting, O’Kain told him that it was from selling drugs. Goklu continued meeting with O’Kain to exchange bitcoin for cash.

Although Goklu’s transactions with O’Kain involved the agent transferring his bitcoin for cash, Goklu also conducted some transactions in which he sold his bitcoin to customers instead. Goklu

4 obtained some of the cash that he exchanged with O’Kain from selling bitcoin to another customer.

Between August 2018 and January 2019, Goklu and O’Kain met six times, exchanging roughly $130,000 worth of bitcoin for cash. In April 2019, Goklu agreed to meet with O’Kain for a seventh time to exchange about $50,000 worth of bitcoin. But before they made the exchange, the monitoring DEA team arrested Goklu.

B. Procedural History

In October 2020, the government filed a two-count superseding indictment against Goklu. Count One charged him with money laundering, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1956, and Count Two charged him with operating an unlicensed money transmitting business, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1960. Goklu entered pleas of not guilty and proceeded to trial.

1. Voir Dire

During voir dire, the district court asked prospective jurors if they had any positive or negative feelings toward law enforcement. After excusing multiple jurors for cause, the court held a sidebar with a prospective juror (“Juror 30”).

Juror 30 explained that he works for New York City Parks, so he interacts with the Parks Police on a daily basis and has a “positive outlook towards police.” App’x at 120. The court asked if he could be fair and objective despite his positive feelings about law enforcement. After saying he was not sure, Juror 30 agreed to “try [his] best.” Id. at 121. When asked again whether he could evaluate law enforcement officer testimony impartially, he said that he could “[i]f it’s presented in a neutral manner.” Id. at 122.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Rosales-Lopez v. United States
451 U.S. 182 (Supreme Court, 1981)
United States v. Mazza-Alaluf
621 F.3d 205 (Second Circuit, 2010)
United States v. Roger R. Ploof and George J. Godin
464 F.2d 116 (Second Circuit, 1972)
United States v. Kaare Gilboe, Jr.
684 F.2d 235 (Second Circuit, 1982)
United States v. Oscar Civelli
883 F.2d 191 (Second Circuit, 1989)
United States v. Art Williams, Roland Onaghinor
475 F.3d 468 (Second Circuit, 2007)
United States v. Ho
984 F.3d 191 (Second Circuit, 2020)
United States v. Mensah
110 F.4th 510 (Second Circuit, 2024)
United States v. Kelly
128 F.4th 387 (Second Circuit, 2025)
United States v. Concepcion
139 F.4th 242 (Second Circuit, 2025)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
United States v. Goklu, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-goklu-ca2-2026.