Frankfurt am Main's Attorney General's Office - the Central Office for Combating Internet Crime (ZIT) - and the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) seized today, Wednesday, the server infrastructure of the "ChipMixer" cryptomixer located in Germany, which has the highest turnover in the darknet. In addition to about 7 terabytes of data, the equivalent of about 44 million euros worth of bitcoin was seized, the largest seizure of BKA cryptoassets to date.
ChipMixer operators are suspected of, among other things, engaging in commercial money laundering and a criminal online trading platform. The BKA investigation worked closely with the U.S. Department of Justice (US DoJ), the Philadelphia Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Phoenix Homeland Security Investigative Service, and Europol.
ChipMixer was a service that had existed since mid-2017 that, among other things, accepted bitcoins of criminal origin in order to pay them out again after masking processes (known as "blending"). In this process, the deposited cryptocurrencies were divided into homogeneous small amounts, called "chips," in order to thwart investigations. The users' "chips" were then mixed together, thus hiding the origin of the money. "ChipMixer" promised its users complete anonymity.
It is estimated that since 2017, "ChipMixer" has laundered about 154,000 bitcoins, or 2.8 billion euros, in crypto-assets. Much of this money came from darknet markets, fraudulently obtained crypto-assets, extortion groups and other criminal activities. Among other things, the investigation is considering the suspicion that some of the crypto-assets stolen in connection with the bankruptcy of a major crypto-exchange in 2022 were laundered through ChipMixer. In addition, millions of transactions from the darknet platform Hydra Market, which was shut down in April 2022 by ZIT and BKA, could be proven. Similarly, ransomware execs such as Zeppelin, SunCrypt, Mamba, Dharma or Lockbit used the service to launder money.
A confiscation banner was published on the Tor service's website.
In addition, the FBI issued a wanted notice for the alleged prime defendant in the case in the U.S. and offered a reward for additional information relevant to the investigation through the U.S. Justice Department's Rewards for Justice program.
The renewed success in the fight against cybercrime is the result of innovative strategies against the global cybercrime industry. After all, money laundering services are regularly an important component of extortion through ransomware attacks. Therefore, it is the goal of the BKA and ZIT to use the knowledge gained in the case against "ChipMixer" to advance the investigation of further cybercrimes and prevent the use of German infrastructures for criminal purposes using funds from illegal activities.
ChipMixer operators are suspected of, among other things, engaging in commercial money laundering and a criminal online trading platform. The BKA investigation worked closely with the U.S. Department of Justice (US DoJ), the Philadelphia Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Phoenix Homeland Security Investigative Service, and Europol.
ChipMixer was a service that had existed since mid-2017 that, among other things, accepted bitcoins of criminal origin in order to pay them out again after masking processes (known as "blending"). In this process, the deposited cryptocurrencies were divided into homogeneous small amounts, called "chips," in order to thwart investigations. The users' "chips" were then mixed together, thus hiding the origin of the money. "ChipMixer" promised its users complete anonymity.
It is estimated that since 2017, "ChipMixer" has laundered about 154,000 bitcoins, or 2.8 billion euros, in crypto-assets. Much of this money came from darknet markets, fraudulently obtained crypto-assets, extortion groups and other criminal activities. Among other things, the investigation is considering the suspicion that some of the crypto-assets stolen in connection with the bankruptcy of a major crypto-exchange in 2022 were laundered through ChipMixer. In addition, millions of transactions from the darknet platform Hydra Market, which was shut down in April 2022 by ZIT and BKA, could be proven. Similarly, ransomware execs such as Zeppelin, SunCrypt, Mamba, Dharma or Lockbit used the service to launder money.
A confiscation banner was published on the Tor service's website.
In addition, the FBI issued a wanted notice for the alleged prime defendant in the case in the U.S. and offered a reward for additional information relevant to the investigation through the U.S. Justice Department's Rewards for Justice program.
The renewed success in the fight against cybercrime is the result of innovative strategies against the global cybercrime industry. After all, money laundering services are regularly an important component of extortion through ransomware attacks. Therefore, it is the goal of the BKA and ZIT to use the knowledge gained in the case against "ChipMixer" to advance the investigation of further cybercrimes and prevent the use of German infrastructures for criminal purposes using funds from illegal activities.
Thanks for that!