US charges Vietnamese man over $16m pig butchering crypto scam
Trung Nguyen Van, 37, faces money laundering charges in Missouri after prosecutors said a single victim lost about $16 million to a fake crypto platform called Triangle.
Key points
- Trung Nguyen Van, 37, faces a two-count money laundering complaint in the Western District of Missouri.
- One victim wired roughly $16 million in cryptocurrency between June and August 2024, believing they were investing in a platform called Triangle.
- Investigators traced a transfer of more than $569,000 to a wallet controlled by Van, who then moved about $568,000 into self-custody.
- Van's wallets received an estimated $53.3 million tied to wire fraud schemes targeting Americans between February 2018 and December 2024.
- The complaint was unsealed after Van appeared in court in Los Angeles, the US Attorney's Office in Kansas City said.
US federal prosecutors have charged a Vietnamese national over his alleged role in a pig butchering crypto scam that they say cost one victim about $16 million. Trung Nguyen Van, 37, faces a two-count criminal complaint in the Western District of Missouri charging him with money laundering, Bitcoin.com News reports. The complaint was unsealed this week after Van made an initial court appearance in Los Angeles, according to the US Attorney's Office in Kansas City.
Pig butchering schemes take their name from the practice of fattening up a victim before financially devastating them. They typically begin with fraudsters striking up seemingly romantic relationships online, often through dating apps, unsolicited texts or social media messages. Once trust is built, victims are steered towards fake crypto investment platforms and urged to send increasingly large sums after being shown fabricated returns.
Charges in Missouri
According to court filings, the victim in this case wired approximately $16 million in cryptocurrency between June and August 2024, believing they were investing in a platform called Triangle. Investigators traced a single transfer of more than $569,000 directly to a wallet controlled by Van. Days later, that wallet received six further transfers totalling roughly the same amount, before Van allegedly moved nearly all of it, about $568,000, into a self-custody wallet.
Authorities say the pattern went well beyond one victim. Between February 2018 and December 2024, Van's wallets received an estimated $53.3 million in cryptocurrency tied to wire fraud schemes targeting Americans, nearly all of which was then funnelled off the traceable blockchain. The scale of those flows is central to the prosecution's money laundering case.
How the scam worked
R. Matthew Price, US attorney for the Western District of Missouri, said in a statement that pig butchering schemes are an increasingly prevalent and sophisticated form of fraud that have caused billions of dollars in losses to victims worldwide. He added that fraudsters should know authorities will use every available resource to pursue those who target innocent victims.
FBI Special Agent in Charge Chris Ormerod said the bureau's Kansas City Field Office worked with private-sector partners to unravel the scheme and prevent further victimisation. The case adds to a growing set of US prosecutions targeting the laundering networks behind crypto investment fraud, which often moves funds quickly across wallets and chains to break the trail.