On March 14, 2023, the US Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania (EDPA) under the Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a criminal complaint against a Vietnamese national, Minh Quoc Nguyen, for facilitating the laundering of $3 billion of cryptocurrency (18 U.S.C. § 1956(a)(1)(B)(i)), operation of an unlicensed money transmitting business (18 U.S.C. § 1960), and identity theft (18 U.S.C. § 1028(a)(3)) as operator of cryptocurrency mixer ChipMixer.

A cryptocurrency mixer is an entity that allows users to commingle or mix different streams of potentially identifiable cryptocurrency and are often used to conceal proceeds from illegal transactions. According to the complaint, ChipMixer has operated as an online mixer since August 2017. ChipMixer's customers send their bitcoin to ChipMixer, which mixes it with other users' cryptocurrency, commingling the cryptocurrency to make tracing the transactions difficult for law enforcement and regulators.

The complaint also states that Nguyen operated ChipMixer as a money transmitter in the US but failed to register with the US Department of Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) as a money services business (MSB) (see Practice Note, FinCEN Regulation of Virtual Currency: Overview).

According to the complaint, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) determined that since 2017, Nguyen operated ChipMixer by using aliases and stolen identities from individuals located around the world to:

According to a DOJ press release, the DOJ conducted a coordinated international takedown of ChipMixer with the Department of Homeland Security's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) office in The Hague, the HSI Cyber Crimes Center, EUROPOL, the Polish Cyber Police, and Zurich State Police. German law enforcement took separate actions under its authorities.

If convicted, Nguyen faces a maximum penalty of 40 years in prison.