US charges two foreign nationals with laundering millions from pig-butchering scams

Two foreign nationals were charged Friday with laundering about $73 million in crypto stolen from victims defrauded in crypto pig-butchering scams, the US Justice Department said.

Daren Li, 41, a dual citizen of China and St. Kitts and Nevis, and a resident of China, Cambodia, and the UAE, was arrested in April in Atlanta. Yicheng Zhang, 38, a Chinese national and resident of Temple City, California, was arrested Thursday in Los Angeles.

According to court documents, Li, Zhang, and other conspirators managed an international syndicate that laundered the illicit proceeds of pig-butchering scams.

“I encourage everyone to educate themselves on pig butchering and other kinds of financial fraud to protect their families against such predatory activity. Vigilance is key,” US Attorney Martin Estrada said.

Such scams involve perpetrators striking up conversations with their victims over a messaging app and earning their trust before convincing them to invest in fake projects, DL News has reported.

In China, tens of thousands have been apprehended for involvement in such schemes — even some who may have have been forced into scamming.

The UN estimates that hundreds of thousands of people are working in compounds in Myanmar, Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines, forced into “coerced digital delinquency.”

In this particular instance, victims were fraudulently induced into transferring millions of dollars to US bank accounts opened in the names of dozens of shell companies whose sole purpose was to facilitate the laundering of fraud proceeds, the DOJ said.

A network of money launderers then transferred the funds to other domestic and international bank accounts and crypto platforms in a manner designed to conceal their source, nature, ownership, and control.

A cryptocurrency wallet involved in the scheme had received more than $341 million in virtual assets, according to the DOJ.