GreenValueHost is far from new to here, and the LowEndTalk budget VPS community.
They came onto the scene way back in 2013 — you can even still see their offers around here if you dig for it.
Threads back in 2015 or prior were created about ’employees’ hacking into their school to change their grades, and Jonny Nguyen, the founder, DDoSing his school.
For a while, business was seemingly booming despite the controversies Jonny Nguyen, or Jonny ‘Nuggets‘ faced.
(GVH and Jonny had quite the run.)
Of course, as you may have guessed by the title of this article…
That all came to an abrupt end.
Trouble at School for Jonny
According to a man named Duke, who did in fact temporarily end up running things for Jonny, here’s what led to the fall of GVH:
Here is what I know so far after speaking to Jonny and his father…
There was a video of him trying to access the schools SSH and apparently it was sent to the school officials and then to the police. This happened after Jonny decided to email the school district and the IT guys about supposed insecurities in the schools public and private networks. A few people told him not to, but he decided to do it anyways. Apparently not too long after that, his school started getting DDoS attacked, we all know what can happen around that time as well, hacks. Now I do not think the school was hacked, and if so, the possibility that Jonny found a legitimate vulnerability in their network and then gave it out to others for malicious reasons is a strong possibility. Fact is that right now he was questioned in regards to a few things, including his involvement with HackForums and I believe DDoS attacks against the school.
This is funny because Eric Walstrom was arrested earlier this year for hacking his school and changing his grades or whatever and now this with Jonny. I have to say, I saw it coming, but tried to help him.
I also heard from a reliable source that the Chris guy that was supposedly hired by GVH will not assist any longer and has stepped away from the company.
Will this be the final end to Green Value Host?
Find out more on the next episode of ‘As Jonny’s World Turns!’
(Per a post over on WebHostingTalk on May 27th, 2015.)
At the time, Jonny himself described it as:
Jon Nguyen Temporary Unavailability Notice
Wednesday, May 27, 2015
Copied from mass email:Dear Valued Customer,
I am deeply sorry that this notification has to come so abruptly, especially in the midst of our best month yet since our relaunch. We’ve come so far and have so many goals we’ve yet to accomplish, and right now everything is at a pause because of an extreme, unforseen circumstance that I am unable to control. Due to misunderstandings between legal personnel and myself, I no longer have the capacity to assist our customers for the time being. I will largely be away starting tomorrow in my efforts to go through the necessary legal process, and am not sure of whether or not I am going to have access to the Internet. For the time being, our newly hired staff member Chris will be assisting customers to the best of his capability. I understand that I have a lot of responsibilities here and want everyone to know that I will never leave the company that I love so much — GreenValueHost, nor my customers here. As soon as I am able to get back on track, I will do so. Right now I just want everyone to know what is going on and what happening, and I ask for everyone’s forgiveness in any inconveniences that this may cause and for everyone’s understanding of the issue. I will be back as soon as I can. Please don’t think that I have abandoned you, because that’s something that I will never do. I love my customers, and I will always stand beside them when they need me.
Thanks again, and I really hope to see you all again soon.
Yours,
Jon
Duke, mentioned above, ran a company called Xfuse that ended up acquiring GVH customers in February 2015. That company only lasted until September 2015.
After that, all GVH customers were essentially dead in the water…
On the surface while the entire situation was controversial and covered in mystery, I don’t think anyone expected Jonny to get in any real trouble for anything, especially when the main concern was simply about hacking, or DDoSing his school – we only found out later it appeared to be more about stealing personal information.
After the disappearance of Jonny (along with the death of GVH), things kind of got quiet for a while.
That was until…
Jonny Nguyen Is Officially Charged
On May 26th, 2020 the FBI published the following:
For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of MassachusettsBOSTON – A New Hampshire man was charged today in federal court in Boston in connection with engaging in a complex scheme to conduct fraudulent financial transactions using stolen account information and other personally identifiable information (PII) of victims in Massachusetts and elsewhere throughout the United States.
Jonathan Nguyen, 23, of Windham, N.H., was charged with conspiring to engage in wire fraud, access-device fraud and identity theft.
According to the charging document, Nguyen and others involved in the scheme used Bitcoin to purchase names, addresses, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, email addresses and passwords as well as credit card account numbers, expiration dates, card verification values and other forms of PII. Nguyen and others then used this information to purchase tickets to sporting events and gift cards that Nguyen sold for profit. Nguyen also created e-commerce websites for sham companies and obtained payment-card processing capabilities for these sham companies in order to cash out the stolen credit cards. He used various technological means to thwart the fraud-detection mechanisms deployed by the internet merchants where he made purchases with the stolen PII.
The charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, access-device fraud, and identity theft provides for a sentence of up to five years in prison, up to three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
United States Attorney Andrew E. Lelling and Joseph R. Bonavolonta, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Field Division made the announcement today. Valuable assistance was provided by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Assistant U.S. Attorney David J. D’Addio of Lelling’s Cybercrime Unit is prosecuting the case.
The details contained in the indictment are allegations. The defendant is presumed to be innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
That lead to the following consequential article titled…
“New Hampshire Man Sentenced for Financial Fraud Scheme Using Stolen Identities”
Published January 7th, 2021, here’s what the FBI had to say:
BOSTON – A New Hampshire man was sentenced today in connection with engaging in a complex scheme to conduct fraudulent financial transactions using stolen account information and other personally identifiable information (PII) of victims in Massachusetts and elsewhere throughout the United States.
Jonathan Nguyen, 23, of Windham, N.H., was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Allison D. Burroughs to a year and a day in prison, two years of supervised release and ordered to pay $250,000 in forfeiture. In June 2020, Nguyen pleaded guilty to conspiring to engage in wire fraud, access-device fraud and identity theft.
Nguyen and others involved in the scheme used Bitcoin to purchase names, addresses, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, email addresses and passwords as well as credit card account numbers, expiration dates, card verification values and other forms of PII. Nguyen and others then used this information to purchase tickets to sporting events and gift cards that Nguyen sold for profit. Nguyen also created e-commerce websites for sham companies and obtained payment-card processing capabilities for these sham companies in order to cash out the stolen credit cards. He used various technological means to thwart the fraud-detection mechanisms deployed by the internet merchants where he made purchases with the stolen PII.
United States Attorney Andrew E. Lelling and Joseph R. Bonavolonta, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Field Division made the announcement today. Valuable assistance was provided by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Assistant U.S. Attorney Mackenzie Queenin of Lelling’s Securities, Financial & Cyber Fraud Unit is prosecuting the case.
He Did in Fact End Up Serving Time in Prison
However, he’s out now.
We even did an interview with Jonny after the fact right here.
When Dread Lord of LowEnd Content here at LEB, @raindog308 asked Jonny about his time in prison, here’s what he replied:
While in prison, I spent almost a month in solitary confinement in a secure psychiatric unit. I had a lot of time to think and reflect on the past. I came to an epiphany there that in order to truly learn from my past and prevent making the same mistakes again in the future, I must continue to revisit everything that led up to where I am today. I agreed to do this interview because it is an opportunity for me to reflect and remind myself of what I did wrong.
I spent a month in solitary confinement before being moved to a minimum-security facility. I was fortunate to have never encountered any violence from any other inmates. Federal prisons offer many rehabilitative programs that help inmates gain skills that will help them when they re-enter society, such as the service dog training program, culinary arts program, and automotive program. I am grateful to the administration for affording me the opportunity to learn valuable skills in the kitchen.
Raindog308 then asked about how long he was in prison and the release process:
After 7 months, I was relocated to a halfway house for a period of 3 months where they helped me find a job working in a restaurant. After I was released from the halfway house, they helped me with mental health counseling and I see a counselor on a regular basis now. I took the skills that I learned in prison while working in the kitchen to start a new career working as a cook in a nice restaurant .. making everything from scratch!
I am a full-time college student during the day and then go to work at night to help pay for my expenses and for school. I am grateful to be paid a living wage, now being independent of my parents and living in my own apartment.
When asked ‘why?’ he did everything, Jonny replied:
I was severely depressed and was looking for a way out. Instead of seeking professional help, I victimized others to pay for things like being able to travel, bringing girls out on expensive dates, and putting on the guise of success to artificially bolster my low self-esteem. I think the high point of my arc was when I was able to take out girls who were way out of my league, who never would have paid any attention to me if I didn’t have money. After I lost all of it, I realized that I was not only cheating the people that I stole from, but I cheated myself, too.
So, Johnny was running a lowend VPS host while simultaneously committing fraud to fund an unrealistic lifestyle.
The FBI noticed, then eventually charged and sentenced him to a little over a year, of which, he served 7 months inside of prison and 3 months in a halfway house for a total of 10 months.
One would assume his post-release supervision has likely concluded now, too.
What’s Jonny ‘Nuggets’ Nguyen Up to Today?
As per our interview from back in summer 2022, Jonny is just living a normal life.
Of course it wasn’t right to leave GVH customers hanging, nor was it right to commit fraud…. I’m not saying that.
But what I am saying is there does seem to be some growth from Johnny, beyond just what his lawyer told him to say.
It not only looks like it’s past the GVH days for Jonny… he said it himself to raindog308.
He’s done running a hosting business, there’s no chance of GVH 2.0, and he admitted he made a terrible mistake.
In terms of being active in the lowend VPS community?
He was last active over on LowEndTalk June 7th, a bit longer than a month ago from the time I’m writing this article.
With his last discussion complaining about Amazon Prime deliveries… not trying to sell you a 3-year contract on a budget VPS.
I don’t see the fault in that. He did his crime, and he did his time.
While he can’t take back his actions, he can at least be genuinely remorseful about his crimes, which he has seemed to be… and nowadays he just seems to be a simple guy, with simple complaints…
Long gone are the days of doing fraud, or making bold promises accompanied with unsustainable offers on the side…. just to leave his customers hanging.
Hopefully, (at least for nuggets sake) we never see another FBI press release with his name in it.
Here’s to reformed Jonny:
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