TL;DR:
- The US Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Missouri filed money laundering charges against Trung Nguyen Van, a 37-year-old citizen of Vietnam.
- The primary victim transferred approximately $16 million in crypto assets between June and August 2024, believing they were trading on a legitimate platform.
- Investigative records indicate that wallets tied to the defendant received over $53.2 million linked to similar frauds between February 2018 and December 2024.
The United States Attorney’s Office filed criminal charges against an individual tied to a crypto pig butchering scam scheme that defrauded a victim of $16 million. The official announcement was made this Friday, September 25, 2026, in the Western District of Missouri.
The defendant, identified in the criminal complaint as Trung Nguyen Van, a 37-year-old Vietnamese national, faces two federal counts of alleged money laundering. The formal indictment was unsealed following his initial appearance in federal court in Los Angeles.
According to the judicial filing released by prosecutors, the victim transferred nearly $16 million in digital assets during the northern hemisphere summer of 2024. The records detail that the funds were deposited under the false belief that they were being allocated on an investment portal named Triangle.
Investigative findings traced direct transfers to addresses under Van’s operational control. On August 7, 2024, a wallet received an initial transfer of more than $569,000 originating from the preliminary funds. Two days later, on August 9, 2024, the same wallet logged six additional transactions totaling $569,569 linked to the same victim.
Authorities allege the defendant subsequently diverted approximately $567,999 across four separate outbound transactions to unhosted private addresses. According to statements by Assistant US Attorney R. Matthew Price, this class of fraudulent operation represents a complex modality generating cumulative multi-million-dollar losses worldwide.
International Reach and Blockchain Traceability
The dossier assembled by the FBI reveals that the detected transactions extend well beyond this single case. Between February 2018 and December 2024, addresses associated with Van collected a consolidated $53.28 million derived from wire fraud schemes across US territory.
Over that same multi-year span, approximately $53.19 million was rerouted toward accounts and wallets outside centralized platforms. According to prosecutors, multiple additional complainants suffered multi-million-dollar losses following an identical social engineering pattern.
The mechanics documented in the affidavit outline a systematic digital solicitation modus operandi. Operators initiated online contact, cultivated long-term rapport, and subsequently induced victims to transfer capital to fraudulent interfaces simulating trading gains.
Victims were shown fictitious account balances with fabricated capital gains to encourage larger deposits. When investors requested liquidity withdrawals, the platforms permanently cut off access to their funds.
Technical advisories from the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) note that these syndicates are commonly coordinated by transnational criminal networks based in Southeast Asia. The court filing clarifies that the charges represent formal accusations and that the defendant maintains the presumption of innocence unless proven guilty in a court of law.
The case will continue its judicial proceedings in the courts of the Western District of Missouri during hearings scheduled toward the close of the judicial calendar.
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