A man in California, USA, was sentenced to 87 months in prison for profiting from money laundering using Bitcoin

ChainCatcher news, according to Decrypt, a man in California has been sentenced to 87 months in federal prison for using Bitcoin to launder proceeds from the sale of MDMA on the dark web.

29-year-old San Francisco resident John Khuu pleaded guilty to conspiracy to launder money and operating an illegal money transmission business. According to Texas law enforcement, Khuu imported MDMA from Germany and sold it on various dark web markets, accepting Bitcoin payments. He then converted the Bitcoin stored in seller accounts into dollars and laundered the money through "hundreds of transactions and dozens of financial accounts."

This arrest is part of "Operation Crypto Runner," a joint multi-year investigation announced by the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Secret Service, and the Postal Inspection Service in November 2022. Blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis believes that 2024 could be the largest year for money laundering through cryptocurrency, exceeding $40 billion, setting a new record. The U.S. Treasury's 2024 risk assessment found that while traditional money laundering methods still dominate, the use of cryptocurrency for laundering drug transactions is increasingly rising, with methods becoming more complex.