As government scrutiny of Binance Holdings Ltd. and other top crypto players intensifies, a company called ChipMixer is in the crosshairs of US and European law enforcement. They describe it as a mechanism to launder money, and the man allegedly behind the company has gone dark.

As it happened, I exchanged emails with someone involved a few years ago, and the conversation shows the flimsy defense ChipMixer used to claim its legitimacy.

When I contacted the site while covering the gift-card case, a representative who didn’t provide a name was adamant the service was merely a privacy tool. “Privacy is not a crime,” this person wrote in 2021.