But bitcoin isn't money. How can he plead guilty to running a money exchange, when the IRS has ruled it isn't money. He was only buying and selling a virtual property. Do we need to start arresting people who buy and sell high ticket items like wine or cars?
Bitcoin is only not "money" for tax purposes. Different laws have different definitions for a number of things.
There are a number of things besides bitcoin that can be used for money laundering. Real estate, gold, diamonds are three examples of things that I can think of off the top of my head that can be used to launder money that are even further from money then bitcoin is