Topic: ChipMixer.com has been seized. - page 4. (Read 1773 times)

Turns out chipmixer claims were a scam.
Even my chips which I had in chipmixer service for which they claimed to "delete private" keys after 7 days or whatever, were seized/transfered.
and these transactions took place good 3 months ago.

You can assume that they stored history on everything including input and outputs and this data is now in LE hands. Although in most countries using services like this is perfectly legal and they cannot accuse you of anything. Receiving coins that someone else obfuscated via CM and sent to you is also not illegal. You have to be proven that you did obfuscate these coins yourself, which is a hard case, assuming you used VPNs/TOR while using CM website. Regarding the data, even if they have now all historical transaction data, it is nothing new. All chipmixer addresses and transactions were easily visible in the blockchain even without the seizure of data - due to the unique chip size and very schematic process.

The operator of the website has a bigger problem cause they're gonna put him into jail for ages for creating this. Chipmixer grew too big and was part of ransomware schemas including high-profile hacks of North Korea. They accepted it and did not try to prevent it. Additionally, they refused to respond to LE contact when they seeked information in these cases by contacting chipmixer.

DOJ/FBI claims the operator of the website was identified due to OPSEC mistake where he sent funds to one of Paypal accounts associated with CM from his real identified Paypal account. Check page 32 of indictment. They digged very deep and even successfully probed ProtonMail for information, not a real surprise considering how big and popular the chipmixer service was.

They were also able to identify server serving TOR website hosted in Hetzner, it is not disclosed how they managed to find out the real IP address of .onion website. After finding the server they probed the PayPal account which funded the hosting service, checked the logs and found out chipmixer operator identity and now they can prove it was directly linked to funding chipmixer infrastructure/operations.

The amount of the charges he got is not really big for the scale of the service.

Any solid reason for them to seize bitcointalk.org?

Die Generalstaatsanwaltschaft Frankfurt am Main – Zentralstelle zur Bekämpfung der Internetkriminalität (ZIT) – und das Bundeskriminalamt (BKA) haben am heutigen Mittwoch die in Deutschland befindliche Serverinfrastruktur des weltweit umsatzstärksten Krypto-Mixers im Darknet, „ChipMixer“, beschlagnahmt. Neben Daten im Umfang von ca. 7 Terabyte wurden Bitcoin in Höhe von derzeit umgerechnet ca. 44 Millionen Euro sichergestellt – die höchste bisher vorgenommene Sicherstellung von Kryptowerten durch das BKA.

Die Betreiber von „ChipMixer“ stehen unter anderem im Verdacht, gewerbsmäßige Geldwäsche und eine kriminelle Handelsplattform im Internet betrieben zu haben. Bei den Ermittlungen kooperierte das BKA eng mit dem United States Department of Justice (US DoJ), dem Federal Bureau of Investigation Philadelphia (FBI), Homeland Security Investigations Phoenix sowie Europol.

Bei „ChipMixer“ handelte es sich um einen seit Mitte 2017 bestehenden Dienst, der insbesondere Bitcoin kriminellen Ursprungs entgegennahm, um sie nach Verschleierungsvorgängen (sogenanntes „Mixing“) wieder auszuzahlen. Dabei wurden eingezahlte Kryptowerte zum Zwecke der Vereitelung von Ermittlungen in einheitliche Kleinstbeträge geteilt, die als „Chips“ bezeichnet wurden. Die „Chips“ der Nutzer wurden anschließend vermengt und die Herkunft der Gelder somit verborgen. „ChipMixer“ versprach seinen Nutzern vollständige Anonymität.

Es wird geschätzt, dass „ChipMixer“ seit 2017 Kryptowerte in Höhe von etwa 154.000 Bitcoin bzw. 2.8 Milliarden Euro gewaschen hat. Ein signifikanter Teil davon stammte von Darknet-Markt-plätzen, aus betrügerisch erlangten Kryptowerten, von Ransomware-Gruppierungen und aus anderen kriminellen Taten. So wird unter anderem dem Verdacht nachgegangen, dass Teile von im Zusammenhang mit der Insolvenz einer großen Krypto-Börse im Jahr 2022 entwendeten Kryptowerten über „ChipMixer“ gewaschen wurden. Zudem können Transaktionen in Millionenhöhe von der im April 2022 durch die ZIT und das BKA abgeschalteten Darknet-Plattform „Hydra Market“ nachgewiesen werden. Ebenso haben Ransomware-Akteure wie Zeppelin, SunCrypt, Mamba, Dharma oder Lockbit den Dienst zur Geldwäsche genutzt.

Zudem wurde der mutmaßliche Hauptbeschuldigte im US-Verfahren durch das FBI zur Fahndung ausgeschrieben sowie über das „Rewards for Justice Programm“ des US DoJ eine Belohnung für weitere ermittlungsrelevante Hinweise ausgelobt.

Der erneute Erfolg bei der Bekämpfung der Internetkriminalität ist ein Ergebnis innovativer Bekämpfungsstrategien gegen die weltweite Cybercrime-Industrie. Denn: Geldwäschedienste sind regelmäßig ein wichtiger Bestandteil bei Erpressungen durch Ransomware-Angriffe. Ziel des BKA und der ZIT ist es daher, mit den in dem Verfahren gegen „ChipMixer“ gewonnen Erkenntnissen die Aufklärung weiterer Cyber-Straftaten voranzutreiben und zu verhindern, dass deutsche Infrastrukturen zu kriminellen Zwecken mit Geldern aus illegalen Handlungen missbraucht werden.

Die ZIT und das BKA bedanken sich bei allen beteiligten Sicherheitsbehörden für die hervorragende Zusammenarbeit.

Guys what do you think, will bitcointalk censor bitcoin mixers marketing?

The investigator followed up all the 400 posts created under the “chipmixer" moniker, it was also linked to Reddit too. I don't think they'll be need for the FBI to visit the forum again since they've gotten the information they need. Somehow we'll have FBI agents as active members of this forum, a lot is going on, everyone should be wary about their responses to some fishy questions in the forum.

According to Company
A’s tracing platform, from August 2017 to March 2023:
a. ChipMixer received 153,732 bitcoin and sent 153,672 bitcoin. Based on
the value of bitcoin at the time of the transactions, ChipMixer processed $3 billion worth of
transactions.
b. Chipmixer received $185 million and sent $17 million in bitcoin that was
directly or indirectly associated with wallets designated as darknet marketplaces.
c. ChipMixer received $35 million and sent $670,000 in bitcoin that was
directly or indirectly associated with wallets designated as fraud shops

Until May 2022, chipmixer.com was a
functional clearnet website that was hosted at a U.S. virtual private server (VPS) provider,
DigitalOcean

ChipMixer set up an account at a hosting provider using the name “Max
Archdall.” This account leased servers using a PayPal account associated with the name “Max
Archdall” and the mailing address 5 Myrtle Street, Merrijig, Australia. Based on FBI database
checks and open-source research, this is a fictitious address in Australia

As explained further below, NGUYEN used the moniker “ChipMixer” on the
popular bitcoin message board BitcoinTalk (available at bitcointalk.org). On May 18, 2017,
NGUYEN, as “ChipMixer,” posted (or caused to be posted) to BitcoinTalk that he was looking
for testers for a new bitcoin mixing service. On May 26, 2017, NGUYEN announced in a new
thread that he was “Introducing ChipMixer,” which he described as “Mixing reinvented for your
privacy.” Since then, “ChipMixer” has made over 400 posts to BitcoinTalk, the majority of
which involve addressing questions about ChipMixer. As of March 2023, NGUYEN’s
“ChipMixer” account was still active on BitcoinTalk. Further, since May 15, 2017, NGUYEN

The PayPal account with the name “MINH NGUYEN,” email address
[email protected], account ID 1706782211073221952, was the only PayPal account not
associated with a U.S.-based identity and associated with an actual bank account on the V3
PayPal Account payments received transaction logs

Pursuant to KYC verification requirements, NGUYEN supplied Binance with an identification
card issued by the government of Vietnam, as pictured below

Something tells me that if this situation doesn't end here, they'll pay a visit to bitcointalk.

Also, if I was Minh, I'd not find it wise to setup another mixer now that everyone knows my name.

In the past, there was a memo. Only criminals use Bitcoin. 

These government officials will always hunt any innovation that want to promote privacy.

Btw, not chipmixer but crypto.games has a record, they have been running sig campaign since 2015.

Ah, this is a very sad news to hear especially for our bitcointalk community ppl. I think chipmixer made a record of having a "longest running" signature campaign in the forum till date. I hope they come up with something although the chances seems very low after this seizure

Well, so is this a sign that governments are not going to let us use mixers ? I myself love mixing services and promoting one in my sig. space as well. I hate to see them all at risk now (although coinomize is still up for now).

Didn't you get the memo? Only criminals use mixers.

Also, we are all being heavily spied on by our governments (in case anyone hasn't noticed yet). They had 149k data points about his location, provided by Google, back from 2016 to 2022.

Given how many selfies they include of him in the press release report at https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/1574581/download, I'd wager a terabyte or two are just his own personal photos  

In most cases, a Vietnamese guy who has Europol and the US after him would make a break for the border with Vietnam-China. Given Minh's history in Taiwan though, I wouldn't think China would welcome him with very open arms, so it wouldn't be smart to go there. A lot of places to disappear to in that region of the world though.

both domains are off now by the way, it was a matter of hours

The second domain is still up and doing a redirect, not seized at all, they were known scams, how did they reach the conclusion they were the same?

After getting more than 7 TB of data (I don't know what's in it truly)

Also, if I was Minh, I'd not find it wise to setup another mixer now that everyone knows my name.

Having the (main) website seized by authorities does not necessarily mean that the operations will be halted.

I read a long attached document at https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/1574581/download

As part of the FBI’s efforts to combat ransomware attacks against victims in the
United States, including the Eastern District of Pennsylvania (EDPA), the FBI became aware of
a cryptocurrency mixing service known as ChipMixer, operating through the following clearnet
domains and Tor sites:
a. clearnet: chipmixer.com
b. Tor: chipmixorflykuxu56uxy7gf5o6ggig7xru7dnihc4fm4cxqsc63e6id.onion
c. clearnet: chipmixer.io
Case 2:23-mj-00528 Document 1 Filed 03/14/23 Page 12 of 60
12
d. Tor: chipmixerwzxtzbw.onion
e. clearnet: chipmixer.club
f. Tor: qw6xpezaqb57xsviksbsbjlrftevt52s7baaxiubwb6mkpwkqcfdppqd.onion

Records from Google for the account [email protected] revealed location history data. From September 2016 through March 2022, there were 149,027 data points associated to the account that resolved in and around Ha Noi, Vietnam.