Man Gets 6 Years in Prison For Stealing Over $1 Million in Crypto

United States District Court Judge Richard G. Stearns has sentenced Trung Nguyen to 6 years in prison for money laundering and other illicit activities, with three years of supervised release.

According to a press release, Nguyen, popularly known as DCS420, operated an unlicensed money-transmitting business that converted over $1 million in cash to BTC on behalf of scammers and drug dealers.

The report revealed that the 38-year-old intentionally failed to register with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) even though the law clearly requires it.

The Danvers man tried to obscure the entity’s actual function as a money transmitter. He did this by falsely representing National Vending as a vending machine business in disclosures to banking institutions, digital asset platforms, and state regulatory bodies.

Nguyen Communicates via Encrypted Messaging Apps 

To avoid detection, DCS420 communicated with clients using encrypted messaging applications. He also relied on sophisticated tools to hide BTC transactions. Nguyen structured over $10,000 cash deposits into smaller amounts, which he deposited on different days in different branches of the same bank.

The press release disclosed that between September 2017 and October 2020, Nguyen operated National Vending, LLC, as a front for unregistered crypto transactions. He routinely converted BTC for cash, charging fees without following any regulatory procedures.

Under federal regulations, individuals or entities that exchange digital assets are defined as money transmitters and must adhere to applicable anti-money laundering (AML) protocols. The law requires these businesses to register with FinCEN. This involves filing reports on suspicious activity and reporting BTC-to-cash transactions over $10,000.  

Nguyen’s Involvements in Cash Deals

Over the years, Nguyen has received huge amounts of cash from criminals and drug lords. In 2018, he accepted $250,000 in cash over 10 transactions from a man who told him he was dealing methamphetamine. This is a white, odorless, bitter-tasting crystalline powder primarily consumed by inhaling. 

In 2019 and 2020, the 38-year-old received approximately $3250,000, $60,000, and another $60,000 from three individuals in Kansas City, Glastonbury, and Massachusetts, respectively.

All three were victims of romance fraud schemes that involved coercing them into converting cash to BTC. As such, following these severe crimes, Nguyen was convicted in November 2024. Then, the federal grand jury indicted him on May 30, 2023. The court also ordered DCS420 to forfeit over $1.5 million.

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