Darknet Crypto Mixer Busted: US DOJ Investigation Leads to Seizure of Almost $50 Million – Here's What You Need to Know
The US Justice Department (DoJ) and Europol announced the takedown of ChipMixer, described as "one of the darkweb’s largest cryptocurrency laundromats."
The DoJ announced on March 15 "a coordinated international takedown" of the mixer's infrastructure for its alleged involvement in money laundering activities. It laundered more than $3 billion worth of crypto between 2017 and March 2023, through activities such as ransomware, darknet market, fraud, crypto heists, and various hacks, said the press release.
The agency stated that,
"The operation involved U.S. federal law enforcement’s court-authorized seizure of two domains that directed users to the ChipMixer service and one Github account, as well as the German Federal Criminal Police’s (the Bundeskriminalamt) seizure of the ChipMixer back-end servers and more than $46 million in cryptocurrency."
The DoJ named Minh Quốc Nguyễn (49), of Hanoi, Vietnam, s the mixer's creator and promoter, with the agency saying that he publicly derided efforts to curtail money laundering in an online post, saying that anti-money laundering (AML) and know-your-customer (KYC) are "a sellout to the banks and governments," advising customers "please do not use AML/KYC exchanges," and instructing them on how to use ChipMixer to evade these requirements.
Nguyễn was charged in Philadelphia, USA, with money laundering, operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business, and identity theft. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of 40 years in prison.
Also on Wednesday, the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol) said that it assisted German and US authorities, supported by Belgium, Poland, and Switzerland, in taking down ChipMixer, adding that they seized 1,909.4 bitcoin
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