A US man was sentenced to 6 years in prison and ordered to pay up millions of dollars as a fine, after operating a fraudulent cash-to-Bitcoin conversion service.
The Boston U.S. Attorney’s Office said that Trung Nguyen, who is from Danvers, Massachusetts, would have to spend six years in prison and then three years on supervised release. On May 22, Federal Judge Richard Stearns gave him the sentence and told him to pay $1.5 million in fines.
How Did Nguyen Facilitate Illicit Transactions?
Prosecutors said Nguyen operated an unlicensed money-transmitting business called “National Vending” between September 2017 and October 2020. He allegedly used techniques learned from an online course to evade detection by authorities.
Nguyen was accused of assisting illegal cash-to-Bitcoin transactions for victims who were tricked by foreign scammers. He is said to have turned $250,000 in cash into drugs for a dealer in 10 deals in 2018. Prosecutors say that later he changed more than $1 million into Bitcoin without registering with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) of the US Treasury, which is against federal anti-money laundering laws.
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Undercover Operation Catches Nguyen
Prosecutors say that Nguyen often met with clients in person to take large amounts of cash, which was a major reason for his arrest.
A court filing from May 2023 said that Nguyen took cash and sent Bitcoin in return during several meetings with undercover federal agents. He is said to have charged a little over 5% for his services.
The filing also said that Nguyen used encrypted messaging apps and other tools to hide his transactions. He broke up cash deposits into smaller amounts and spread them out over several days at different bank branches so they wouldn’t be noticed.
Nguyen was accused of running an unlicensed money-transmitting business and was charged with two counts of money laundering. He claimed that he wasn’t guilty of any of the charges. But in November 2023, a jury found him guilty of running an unlicensed business and money laundering, but not the second charge.
