LOS ANGELES/ATLANTA: US authorities charged two Chinese language nationals in a cryptocurrency rip-off that laundered at the least US$73 million from defrauded victims, the Justice Division mentioned on Friday (Could 16).
US officers arrested Yicheng Zhang in Los Angeles on Thursday, in accordance with an indictment unsealed in US District Court docket in California’s central district later that day. Daren Li, a twin citizen of China and St Kitts and Nevis, was arrested on the Atlanta airport in April.
The US accused the 2 of being concerned in a sort of cryptocurrency funding rip-off often known as pig butchering, which has turn into a world billion-dollar trade.
The defendants are alleged to have instructed co-conspirators to open US financial institution accounts within the identify of shell firms.
Victims have been induced on-line into depositing cash into these accounts – funds that have been then laundered by means of US monetary establishments to financial institution accounts within the Bahamas.
“Whereas fraud within the crypto markets takes on many types and hides in lots of far-off locations, its perpetrators aren’t past the legislation’s attain,” US Deputy Lawyer Basic Lisa Monaco mentioned in an announcement.
Li and Zhang are each charged with conspiracy to commit cash laundering and 6 counts of worldwide cash laundering. If convicted, the defendants face a most of 20 years in jail on every depend, the Justice Division mentioned.
