US Downs Vietnamese Darknet Cryptocurrency Service for Laundering Over $3 Billion- Justice Dept.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – The US government downed a Vietnamese company, which it described as a darknet cryptocurrency “mixing” service, for laundering more than $3 billion worth of cryptocurrency, and processing bitcoin allegedly used by the Russian General Staff Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU), the US Justice Department said on Wednesday.

“The Justice Department announced today a coordinated international takedown of ChipMixer, a darknet cryptocurrency 'mixing' service responsible for laundering more than $3 billion worth of cryptocurrency, between 2017 and the present, in furtherance of, among other activities, ransomware, darknet market, fraud, cryptocurrency heists and other hacking schemes,” the statement said.

The operation involved US federal law enforcement’s court-authorized seizure of two domains that directed users to the ChipMixer service and one Github account, it added. US authorities acted in coordination with German Federal Criminal Police, which seized ChipMixer back-end servers and more than $46 million in cryptocurrency.

“Between August 2017 and March 2023, ChipMixer processed: .... Bitcoin used by the Russian General Staff Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU), 85th Main Special Service Center, military unit 26165 (aka APT 28) to purchase infrastructure for the Drovorub malware, which was first disclosed in a joint cybersecurity advisory released by the FBI and National Security Agency in August 2020,” the statement read.

The US government also accused ChipMixer of processing almost $1 billion in bitcoin associated with stolen funds or with darknet markets during that same period. Some of those funds are related to North Korean cyber actors, according to the statement.

“This morning, working with partners at home and abroad, the Department of Justice disabled a prolific cryptocurrency mixer, which has fueled ransomware attacks, state-sponsored crypto-heists and darknet purchases across the globe,” Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said.

“Today’s coordinated operation reinforces our consistent message: we will use all of our authorities to protect victims and take the fight to our adversaries. Cybercrime seeks to exploit boundaries, but the Department of Justice’s network of alliances transcends borders and enables disruption of the criminal activity that jeopardizes our global cybersecurity.”

In relation to ChipMixer’s case, US authorities also charged Minh Quốc Nguyễn, a resident of Vietnam, with money laundering, operating an unlicensed money transmitting business and identity theft. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of 40 years in prison.

The Justice Department called ChipMixer – one of the most widely used mixers to launder criminally-derived funds. According to court documents, it allowed customers to deposit bitcoin. The company then mixed it with other ChipMixer users’ bitcoin, commingling the funds in a way that made it difficult for law enforcement or regulators to trace the transactions, the statement added.

ChipMixer serviced many customers in the United States, but did not register with the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and did not collect identifying information about its customers, it added.