CRYPTO MIXER LAUNDERED $700 MILLION FOR CUSTOMERS, INCLUDING RUSSIAN AND NORTH KOREAN SPIES, DOJ SAYS An international law enforcement operation has taken down ChipMixer, a dark web service that helped criminals launder more than $700 million, Europol and other policing agencies announced on Wednesday. Amongst its users were North Korean hackers and Russian spies, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. ChipMixer charged a small fee to take in clients’ cryptocurrency and spread it among different accounts, in order to complicate law-enforcement tracking of criminal proceeds, police said. In total, it processed $3 billion, nearly $1 billion of which has been traced to crimes, including ransomware incidents and dark web market drug sales, the DOJ said. The domains have been taken down, nearly $50 million seized, and the agency has charged Minh Quốc Nguyễn, 49, of Hanoi, Vietnam, who has allegedly been operating the service since 2017. |