US officials accuse a California man of using bitcoin to launder $5.3M in drug money QuoteCoin
New York City: On Friday, U.S. authorities accused John Khuu, a resident of California, with conspiracy to conduct money laundering as well as the unauthorized importation of a restricted substance on the basis of allegations that he sold fake pharmaceuticals in exchange for bitcoin.
According to a news statement, Khuu was taken into custody in August 2022, after grand juries in the states of Texas and California had delivered the indictments in the months of May and August, respectively.
In one of the charges, it is claimed that Khuu set up vendor accounts on several markets on the dark web with the intention of selling counterfeit pills and other banned drugs starting in January of 2020. Although customers “typically” paid for these medicines using bitcoin (BTC), the indictment claimed that other cryptocurrencies may possibly have been utilized.
A network of financial institutions, including Bank of America, Citibank, JPMorgan Chase, and Wells Fargo, is said to have been used by Khuu in order to facilitate the laundering of the cash. It was stated in the indictment that he had opened a number of fictitious accounts at these institutions.
Following this, the indictment went on to detail a number of alleged transactions that Khuu carried out as part of his attempts to transform bitcoin into cash. It is believed that he was involved in slightly under 500 transactions, which were related to the selling of around 620 BTC.
According to a further court document that was made public on October 6, Khuu agreed to forego his right to a detention hearing.
