According to an article published today in The Telegraph, Bangladesh’s central bank has warned against dealing in Bitcoin, saying anybody caught using the digital currency could face up to 12 years in prison.

The Bangladesh Bank, which regulates the country’s banking industry, said it issued the order after reports in local media of Bitcoin activity occurring between various online exchanges. The central bank issued a stern warning on Monday:

“Bitcoin is not a legal tender of any country. Any transaction through Bitcoin or any other crypto currency is a punishable offense.”

Officials from the bank reportedly told Agence France-Presse that those caught with bitcoins could face up to 12 years in prison, which is a substantial amount of time, especially considering the deplorable conditions of many Bangladesh prisons.

Bitcoin is a software-based online payment system described by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008 and introduced as open-source software in 2009. Payments are recorded in a public ledger using its own unit of account, which is also called bitcoin.

Nakamoto disappeared in late 2009 with over 1 million bitcoins that he had mined while maintaining the lion’s share of the network hashrate.

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