A Vietnamese man is still on the run and is now on the FBI’s most wanted list after being charged with laundering up to $3 billion in Bitcoin and cryptocurrency through the money-laundering service, ChipMixer.
Minh Quốc Nguyễn, a cryptographic engineer with an electronic engineering background from Taiwan, was charged by the Justice Department (DoJ) last month with laundering money for ransomware scammers, darknet markets, fraudsters, and state-sponsored actors. Nguyễn created ChipMixer to help criminals bypass know-your-customer and anti-money-laundering measures.
The DoJ alleges that the Russian military, state-sponsored North Korean hackers, and a recently-collapsed exchange, possibly the now-defunct FTX, all used ChipMixer.
The largest transfer of funds on the system is believed to have been made by North Korean hackers who used the system to launder over $700 million from Axie Infinity’s Ronin Bridge and Harmony’s Horizon Bridge in 2022 and 2020, respectively.
Authorities have claimed that up to 152,000 bitcoin made their way through ChipMixer, with up to 1,900 bitcoin seized. Charges were filed against Nguyễn in Philadelphia, and an FBI warrant was issued after an extensive international investigation conducted by European and US authorities and Interpol.
The operation, which was headline news in Nguyễn’s native Vietnam, saw around $40 million worth of funds recovered.
