Danvers Man Gets Slammed with Six Years for Shady Bitcoin Biz

Trung Nguyen's Unregistered Bitcoin Operation Lands Him Behind Bars

A Danvers local just got hit hard with a six-year prison sentence for running a wild, unregistered Bitcoin business that totally ignored federal anti-money laundering laws. Talk about a risky move!

This Friday, the hammer came down on a Danvers guy who was playing fast and loose with over a million bucks in cash through his unlicensed Bitcoin operation. And guess what? Some of that cash was tied to scammers and a drug dealer. No joke!

Trung Nguyen, who goes by the street name "DCS420," got slapped with six years in the slammer, followed by three years of supervised release. Plus, he's got to cough up over $1.5 million after being found guilty back in November 2024. The charges? Running an unlicensed money transmitting business and money laundering. The U.S. Department of Justice dropped the news in a press release on Friday, and it's a shocker.

From 2017 to 2020, Nguyen was the brains behind National Vending, a sketchy setup where he took cash from customers and handed them Bitcoin in return for a fee. But here's the kicker—he never bothered to register with FinCEN or follow any of those pesky anti-money laundering rules required by federal law. Bold move, but it backfired big time.

Prosecutors are saying Nguyen was slick about hiding his operation. He tried to pass off National Vending as a legit vending machine business and used encrypted messaging to keep his transactions under wraps. Sneaky, sneaky!

"He [Nguyen] used encrypted messaging apps to chat with customers, using tech that made it tougher to trace Bitcoin transactions and breaking up cash deposits over $10,000 into smaller chunks over consecutive days or at different bank branches."

U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Massachusetts

Word on the street is that Nguyen was raking in hundreds of thousands from some shady characters, including a meth dealer and victims of romance scams. It's a wild mix!

And in case you missed it, early May saw Alex Mashinsky, the guy who started the now-bankrupt Celsius Network, getting a 12-year sentence for his part in the company's epic downfall. That disaster cost users billions. Prosecutors say Mashinsky pulled the wool over thousands of eyes, many losing their life savings, while he pocketed over $48 million from the firm. He copped to securities and commodities fraud. It's a crazy time in the crypto world!