American man sentenced to 6 years in prison for illegally providing Bitcoin services and confiscated $1.5 million in illegal gains

According to CoinDesk, Trung Nguyen (pseudonym "DCS420"), a man from Massachusetts, USA, was sentenced to 6 years in prison by the Boston Federal Court for operating an unlicensed cash Bitcoin exchange business. The prosecutor accuses him of laundering over $1 million in money for criminals such as fraudsters and methamphetamine dealers through the fictional vending machine company National Vending, LLC between 2017 and 2020, including exchanging $250000 in Bitcoin for a drug dealer. In addition to his sentence, the judge also ordered Nguyen to surrender illegal gains of $1.5 million and undergo three years of external supervision. In November 2024, a federal jury found that he intentionally evaded anti money laundering regulations, failed to register with the US Financial Crimes Enforcement Agency (FinCEN) as required, and evaded regulation by splitting large transactions. Evidence shows that Nguyen has handled multiple cross-border pig slaughter cases involving stolen funds and contacted customers through encrypted communication tools.