An international operation has brought down Chipmixer, a cryptocurrency mixing service that allegedly laundered more than $3 billion worth of cryptocurrency, according to the US Department of Justice (DOJ). National authorities from the US, Germany, Belgium, Poland and Switzerland participated in the operation, with the support of Europol.
International operation removes Chipmixer
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Wednesday “a coordinated international takedown of Chipmixer,” which it described as “a darknet cryptocurrency ‘mixing’ service responsible for laundering more than $ 3 billion in cryptocurrency.” Europol, which provided support for the operation to take down the mixing service, independently announced:
The national authorities dismantled the infrastructure of the platform for its alleged participation in money laundering activities and confiscated four servers, around 1909.4 bitcoins in 55 transactions (approx. 44.2 million euros) and 7 TB of data.
The US federal police seized two domains directing users to the Chipmixer service and a Github account, while the German Federal Criminal Police (Bundeskriminalamt) seized Chipmixer’s back-end servers and more than $46 million in cryptocurrencies, detailed the Department of Justice.
Chipmixer allowed its users to make bitcoin (BTC) deposits that he “then mixed with bitcoin from other Chipmixer users, mixing the funds in a way that made it difficult for law enforcement or regulators to track the transactions,” the Justice Department explained.
“It primarily operated as a hidden Tor service to hide the location of its servers and prevent seizure by law enforcement,” the Justice Department noted, adding that while it has many US users, the service did not register. with the Finance Department of the US Department of Treasury Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and did not collect identifying information about its clients.
The Department of Justice added that beginning in and around August 2017, Minh Quốc Nguyễn, 49, of Hanoi, Vietnam, “created and operated the online infrastructure used by Chipmixer and promoted Chipmixer services online. “, explaining:
Nguyễn is charged with operating an unlicensed money transfer business, money laundering and identity theft. If he is found guilty, he faces a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison.
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