You didn't seem to make any correlation between these two statements, but ironically they're both in the same post.  Short of exposing his true identity I don't know what ChipMixer (the individual) can do to prove to you he's not conducting a NSA sting.  It's likely the reason that Tornado was crucified is because the developers were publicly known, and chimixer skates along because they are not.

It's certainly not provable that ChipMixer is or isn't US.gov honeypot, and the operator's anonymity can be applied as evidence in either argument.  What is known is that criminals use ChipMixer.  If they were tacked by the government due to their use of ChipMixer, that evidence would have been used to prosecute them.  Since ChipMixer has been around for 5 years, and I don't know of any incident where use of ChipMixer has been used to prosecute anyone.

Maybe the government is playing the long con.  Maybe they're careful to not expose their "source" by using data they've obtained as evidence.  Or, maybe ChipMixer is run by an anonymous individual who's been extremely careful to not expose himself to arrest.

Nonetheless, the use of a centralized service will not provide anyone with anonymity.  For those of us who use mixing services for privacy, ChipMixer has been a safe and reliable provider regardless of who's behind it.