$53 Million Crypto Laundering Scheme Exposed as Romance Scam Suspect Charged

Federal prosecutors have charged Trung Nguyen Van, a Vietnamese national, with laundering approximately $53 million in cryptocurrency allegedly stolen from U.S. victims through romance scams.

According to an affidavit, a Missouri victim lost about $16 million between June and August 2024 after being scammed into investing in a fake crypto platform called Triangle.

The investigators were able to trace more than $569,000 of the victim's funds to a digital wallet linked to Van on August 7. Two days later, six more transfers tied to victims reached the same wallet, and Van then moved nearly $568,000 in four transactions.