Two Chinese nationals accused of playing leading roles in a money laundering scheme involving at least $73 million in stolen funds from cryptocurrency scams have been arrested on federal charges, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Friday.
Daren Li, 41, a dual citizen of China and St. Kitts and Nevis, and resident of China, Cambodia and the United Arab Emirates, was arrested on at an Atlanta airport on April 30 and was transported to the Central District of California.
Yicheng Zhang, 38, a Chinese national and California resident was arrested Thursday, May 16.
Both Chinese nationals are charged with one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and six counts of international money laundering.
If convicted, the pair face a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment on each count.
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In court documents, federal prosecutors allege Li and Zhang managed an “international syndicate” that laundered the proceeds of “pig butchering,” a cryptocurrency investment scam.
Victims of the “pig butchering” scams under investigation by the DOJ were fraudulently induced to transfer millions of dollars to shell companies in the U.S., whose “sole apparent purpose” was to facilitate laundering the proceeds and to conceal the source and ownership of the funds, prosecutors stated.
The fraud scheme allegedly involved more than $73 million laundered through U.S. financial institutions to bank accounts in The Bahamas, and converted to the virtual asset Tether, a U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin.
One cryptocurrency wallet alleged to be involved in the scheme received more than $341 million in virtual assets, the DOJ stated.
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Li an Zhang are accused of coordinating the money laundering network, facilitating the opening of bank accounts in the names of various shell companies, and directly receiving the victim’s cryptocurrency.
“Cryptocurrency investment scams exploit the borderless nature of virtual currency and online communications to defraud victims,” said Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco in a Friday press release. “While fraud in the crypto markets takes on many forms and hides in many far-off places, its perpetrators aren’t beyond the law’s reach.”
Jointly prosecuting the case are the DOJ’s National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team (NCET) and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California.
He must have quite a passport book,
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