Four men have been charged in U.S. federal court for their alleged involvement in a so-called pig butchering scheme that stole more than $80 million from unwitting victims.
Zhang and Walker were arrested on Tuesday and appeared in a Los Angeles district court, while their alleged co-conspirators remain at-large.
The four men are accused of opening shell companies and bank accounts to launder cryptocurrency procured through the pig butchering scams, where fraudsters form relationships with victims on social media, dating sites or messaging platforms.
According to the indictment, victims were also targeted by tech support scams as part of the scheme.
Zhu allegedly registered two shell companies called Sea Dragon Trading and Sea Dragon Remodel.
Between September 2022 and March 2023, he and co-conspirators allegedly funneled money through accounts with JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America, which were linked to the shell companies.
In 2022, according to the FBI, investment fraud caused the highest losses of any type of scam in the United States.
In April, the agency announced the seizure of more than $112 million linked to cryptocurrency investment fraud.
The investment scam industry has metastasized into a global threat, with organized crime syndicates operating scamming compounds throughout Southeast Asia and the industry spreading as far as South America, Interpol recently warned.
In early December, a Nigerian man was sentenced by the country's Federal High Court to three years in prison for carrying out pig butchering scams, using a fraudulent investment platform to defraud victims in 13 countries - including the U.S., Germany, India and South Africa - of more than a half-million dollars.
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James Reddick has worked as a journalist around the world, including in Lebanon and in Cambodia, where he was Deputy Managing Editor of The Phnom Penh Post.
He is also a radio and podcast producer for outlets like Snap Judgment.
This Cyber News was published on therecord.media. Publication date: Fri, 15 Dec 2023 16:45:08 +0000