Major crypto money laundering bust. Get the details on this significant operation against illegal financial activities. US and German law enforcement have taken down crypto-mixing service ChipMixer, allegedly used by criminals to launder more than $3 billion worth of digital currencies. The service allegedly helped ransomware scammers, darknet markets and fraudsters obfuscate their activities by mixing their ill-gotten gains.
The US seized two domains that pointed to ChipMixer, along with a GitHub account and four back-end servers. It also charged Vietnamese national Minh Quoc Nguyen.
Police seized 3b crypto money laundering operation
While cryptocurrencies are a global digital platform, some criminals see them as a way to bypass traditional banking and stay one step ahead of law enforcement. As a result, cryptocurrency is being used by organized crime groups around the world to launder money, and police forces are stepping up their efforts to tackle this new wave of crime.
In the US, a Vietnamese man has been charged with washing up more than $3 billion worth of cryptocurrency by using a crypto-mixing service called ChipMixer. The Justice Department claims Nguyen used ChipMixer to help criminals bypass know-your-customer and anti-money laundering laws, and to launder money stolen from ransomware scammers, darknet markets, fraudsters, cryptocurrency heists and state-sponsored actors.
The FBI, HSI Phoenix and HSI The Hague took the lead on this case, but local European and Asian authorities helped out. Among them, German authorities seized ChipMixer’s servers and data, as well as the identities of its customers, while French police seized the service’s computers and other equipment.
In another international operation, a team of police from Bulgaria, Cyprus and Serbia has shut down a crypto fraud network that defrauded victims in Germany for tens of millions of euros. The team seized more than 150 computers, electronic equipment and data back-ups at four call centres, as well as cars, luxury apartments and more than a million euros in cryptocurrencies. Eurojust organised a coordination centre to support the operation with experts from Germany and two of the participating countries. A 39-year-old woman was arrested on suspicion of money laundering offences and has been interviewed under caution.
Cops seized 3b crypto money laundering operation
The US Department of Justice has announced the takedown of ChipMixer, a cryptocurrency “mixing” service that authorities claim was used to wash $3 billion worth of bitcoin and other crypto. Those funds were allegedly used to further ransomware, darknet markets, fraud and cryptocurrency heists. It was part of a joint operation that saw the FBI seize ChipMixer’s domains and Github account, plus German authorities take the company’s back-end servers. The operation also involved the US HSI Phoenix and HSI The Hague as well as Europol and the Polish National Police.
Metropolitan Police detectives investigating international money laundering have confiscated more bitcoin as part of their investigation. They say they have seized $250 million worth of digital tokens, which is the second significant haul they’ve made in recent weeks. It follows a $160 million haul in June, which was linked to a 39-year-old woman arrested on suspicion of money laundering. It demonstrates the increasing sophistication of organized crime using cryptocurrency to launder criminal funds. Cash might still be king in the criminal world, but law enforcement is determined to follow the money, whatever form it takes.
