A California man has been sentenced for his role in using Bitcoin to launder the proceeds of an operation selling MDMA on the dark web. John Khuu, 29, of San Francisco, California, was sentenced to 87 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business. According to Texas police, Khuu’s operation would import MDMA from Germany and sell it on various dark web markets, accepting payment in Bitcoin.
Khoi would allegedly then trade the Bitcoin stored in seller accounts for U.S. currency and launder the dirty money through “hundreds of transactions and dozens of financial accounts.” The man has been indicted separately in the Northern District of California and charged with unlawful importation of a Schedule I controlled substance. The man’s arrest came as part of Operation Crypto Runner, a joint multiyear investigation by the Department of Justice (DOJ), the U.S. Secret Service (USSS), and the Postal Inspection Service (PIS), announced back in November 2022.
