Security1 publisher2 min readPublished
US charges Vietnamese man whose crypto wallets took in $53 million from fraud schemes
Trung Nguyen Van faces a US money-laundering charge over crypto wallets that the DOJ says took in $53 million from fraud between 2018 and 2024. The trail was still good enough to charge him years later, and the department's own figures show the wallets forwarded nearly all of the money.
The Watch · Security desk
What happened
- Van walked into the US at the San Ysidro crossing from Mexico on September 22 and was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport on September 24, before he could board a flight to Taiwan.
- One victim sent about $16 million in cryptocurrency between June and August 2024 to what they thought was an investment platform called Triangle, and the transfers trace directly to Van's wallet.
- Court documents place the charges inside a broader wire fraud scheme involving more than $125 million, and at least $24 million that reached Van's wallet is linked to known pig-butchering schemes.
- In February, a Chinese national was sentenced in absentia to 20 years over a separate $73 million pig-butchering scheme, months after US authorities set up the Scam Center Strike Force.
Compiled by The WatchSomething wrong?How this is made
Why it matters
- constraint About 99.8% of the inflow was forwarded, so any recovery for victims means following the funds past Van into the unhosted wallets that received them.
- decision Teams handling a customer's crypto-fraud report should keep receiving addresses and transfer records, because in this case the scam websites changed with each victim and the wallets were what linked the losses.
- precedent Wallet operators who move US victims' money can be charged over transfers that are years old and detained once they are on US soil, as Van was.
"Each of the victims were instructed to transfer cryptocurrency to different websites, but each victim reported a similar story," the Department of Justice said [7]. According to the department, victims "were guided by an individual they met online to invest cryptocurrency in a specified 'website' with a promise of high financial returns," and "each victim was never able to withdraw funds they invested" [7]. The front sites changed from victim to victim. According to court documents, the proceeds of those schemes went to wallets tied to one man for nearly seven years [5][2].
The department gave the flow to the dollar. "From Feb. 9, 2018, through Dec. 17, 2024, Van's cryptocurrency wallets received approximately $53,275,939 in cryptocurrency assets from wire fraud schemes targeting United States citizens. The wallet transferred approximately $53,188,466 worth of the same cryptocurrency assets to other accounts off the centralized blockchain network," the DOJ said [6]. The gap between the two figures is $87,473, about 0.16% of the inflow [1]. By those figures the wallets were a pass-through. BleepingComputer reports that Van moved the Triangle victim's funds to a private, unhosted wallet after collecting them [4].
The charged victim's $16 million [1] is about 30% of the wallets' recorded inflow [3]. The at least $24 million linked to known pig-butchering schemes is at least 45% [4]. The DOJ describes the whole inflow as proceeds of wire fraud schemes targeting US citizens [6]. Those figures describe one collection point serving several schemes from 2018 to 2024 [6].
One victim's transfers from mid-2024 [3] connect to a wallet history that starts in February 2018 [6]. The court documents, as reported, do not say when victims came forward or whether any funds were frozen. The case shows that on-chain records can support a charge years after the transfers. It does not show that reporting speed changed the outcome.
The FBI's 2025 Internet Crime Report counts almost $21 billion in American losses to cyber-enabled crime, with investment scams accounting for 49% of scam-related incidents and $8.6 billion in losses [8]. Over nearly seven years, Van's wallets took in about 0.6% of what investment scams cost in that single year [5][2].
What to watch
- Whether prosecutors seek forfeiture against, or publicly identify, the unhosted wallets that received the $53,188,466 Van's wallets forwarded.
- Whether later filings name the operators behind Triangle and the other front websites the DOJ says victims were sent to.
- Whether the charge expands beyond the single $16 million victim to cover the rest of the wallets' recorded inflow.