Danvers man convicted of money laundering

A Danvers man has been convicted in relation to a “no questions asked” Bitcoin conversion scam, according to acting U.S. Attorney Joshua S. Levy. 

Trung Nguyen, also known as “DCS420,” 48, was convicted, after a five-day trial, of money laundering and conducting an unlicensed money transmitting business. There was an additional count of money laundering that the jury did not convict him for. 

 “Money laundering is the lifeblood of a wide swath of criminal conduct,” Levy said in a statement. 

Levy went on to say that money launderers, with the blockchain technology of Bitcoin at play, believe it’s a new frontier of cleaning up dirty money anonymously. This belief is unfounded, according to Levy. 

The deliberate nature of Nguyen’s business and his knowledge of those he did business with was a key part of the illicit nature of his crime, according to other officlas. 

“Nguyen deliberately set up his money service business to evade banking regulations and to circumvent financial safeguards that prevent illicit proceeds from entering legitimate commerce. Our investigation proved that Nguyen knew he was working with criminals by accepting money from victims of scams and a drug dealer,” said HSI New England Special Agent in Charge Michael J. Krol.

The fraudulent business, run by Nguyen, allowed criminals, according to the statement, to convert huge sums of cash into Bitcoin to cover up what they had done to get that cash.

Nguyen operated his money laundering scheme between September 2017 and October 2020 under the name National Vending LLC, according to officials. He accepted cash from customers and, for a fee, sent them Bitcoin. 

Federal regulations required Nguyen to register his business with the Department of Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). He did not do so, according to the statement.

Nguyen accepted around $250,000 in cash from someone who told Nguyen they were a methamphetamine dealer, according to officials. He also took cash from scam victims from Kansas City, Connecticut, and Massachusetts on separate occasions, officials note. The cash values exchanged were $325,000, $60,000, and $60,000, respectively, according to the statement. 

Officials said victims were tricked into converting cash to Bitcoin, and Nguyen refused to file Suspicious Activity Reports or Currency Transaction Reports on any of those transactions.

Nguyen furthermore hid the business by using encrypted messaging apps to communicate with customers and breaking up cash deposits that were more than $10,000 into smaller deposits over time or between branches of the same bank, according to officials. 

Nguyen also took a course he paid for to assist him in hiding his business, according to officials.  It was suggested by this course he develop “a business for which cash deposits from around the country make sense” and that he “develop [his] cover story” to “create a list of your suppliers … fictitious of course,” and “Don’t say the word ‘Bitcoin.” 

His sentence could be up to 20 years and up to a $500,000 fine for the count of money laundering or twice the value of the property involved in the transaction, according to officials, and up to five years for the unlicensed money transmitting business. 

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