2 years ago
An planetary cognition has taken down Chipmixer, a cryptocurrency mixing work that allegedly laundered much than $3 cardinal worthy of cryptocurrency, according to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). The cognition progressive nationalist authorities successful the U.S., Germany, Belgium, Poland, and Switzerland — with Europol’s support.
International Operation Takes Down Chipmixer
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Wednesday “a coordinated planetary takedown of Chipmixer,” which it described arsenic “a darknet cryptocurrency ‘mixing’ work liable for laundering much than $3 cardinal worthy of cryptocurrency.” Europol, which provided enactment for the cognition to instrumentality down the mixing service, independently announced:
National authorities took down the infrastructure of the level for its alleged engagement successful wealth laundering activities and seized 4 servers, astir 1909.4 bitcoins successful 55 transactions (approx. EUR 44.2 million) and 7 TB of data.
U.S. national instrumentality enforcement seized 2 domains that directed users to the Chipmixer work and 1 Github relationship portion the German Federal Criminal Police (the Bundeskriminalamt) seized the Chipmixer back-end servers and much than $46 cardinal successful cryptocurrency, the DOJ detailed.
Chipmixer allowed its users to marque bitcoin (BTC) deposits which it “then mixed with different Chipmixer users’ bitcoin, commingling the funds successful a mode that made it hard for instrumentality enforcement oregon regulators to hint the transactions,” the Justice Department explained.
“It chiefly operated arsenic a Tor hidden work to conceal the determination of its servers and forestall seizure by instrumentality enforcement,” the DOJ noted, adding that portion it has galore U.S. users, the work did not registry with the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and did not cod identifying accusation astir its customers.
The Department of Justice added that opening successful and astir August 2017, Minh Quốc Nguyễn, 49, of Hanoi, Vietnam, “created and operated the online infrastructure utilized by Chipmixer and promoted Chipmixer’s services online,” elaborating:
Nguyễn is charged with operating an unlicensed wealth transmitting business, wealth laundering and individuality theft. If convicted, helium faces a maximum punishment of 40 years successful prison.
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Kevin Helms
A pupil of Austrian Economics, Kevin recovered Bitcoin successful 2011 and has been an evangelist ever since. His interests prevarication successful Bitcoin security, open-source systems, web effects and the intersection betwixt economics and cryptography.
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