{"id":31952,"date":"2025-06-15T18:46:43","date_gmt":"2025-06-15T18:46:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/?p=31952"},"modified":"2025-06-15T18:46:43","modified_gmt":"2025-06-15T18:46:43","slug":"us-justice-department-cracks-down-on-36-9m-international-crypto-fraud-ring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/?p=31952","title":{"rendered":"US Justice Department Cracks Down on $36.9M International Crypto Fraud Ring"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Five men have pleaded guilty to their roles in laundering more than $36.9 million from victims of an international crypto investment scam conspiracy.<\/p>\n

The money was stolen from defrauded investors in the U.S. through a web of shell companies, offshore accounts, and digital asset wallets.<\/p>\n

Details of The Scheme<\/h2>\n

The U.S Department of Justice (DOJ) secured guilty pleas from California residents Joseph Wong, 33; Jose Somarriba, 55; and 39-year-old Shengsheng He. Two Chinese citizens, Yicheng Zhang and Jingliang Su, also confessed to wrongdoing.<\/p>\n

In a press release<\/a> published on June 9, the DOJ indicated that these individuals were part of a criminal network that received funds from U.S. victims under the pretense of investing in crypto.<\/p>\n

Their scheme operated by building trust through unsolicited social media interactions, text messages, phone calls, and online dating sites. Once contact was established, co-conspirators based overseas persuaded the targeted individuals to transfer money under the false belief they were investing in appreciating digital assets.<\/p>\n

However, the funds were being transferred to accounts controlled by the perpetrators. More than $36.9 million was moved from their U.S.-based holdings into a separate one at Deltec Bank in the Bahamas, registered under Axis Digital Limited.<\/p>\n

Somarriba and He co-founded Axis Digital and opened the Deltec account, with Su later joining them as a director. Together, they instructed the bank to convert the stolen money into USDT. The trio then sent the converted funds to a wallet controlled by unnamed people in Cambodia who ultimately forwarded them to unnamed people running \u201cscam centers\u201d in the region, including one in Sihanoukville.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Wong was managing a Los Angeles-based network of money launderers who created shell companies, opened U.S. bank accounts, and wired funds abroad. Zhang also opened and managed two of those capital obfuscation accounts.<\/p>\n

Suspects Await Sentencing<\/h2>\n

Wong and Zhang each owned up to money laundering conspiracy and face a maximum of 20 years in prison. On their part, Somarriba, He, and Su admitted to conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money services business, which carries a maximum penalty of 5 years.<\/p>\n

They join three others who previously copped up to their crimes, including Daren Li, a former resident of Cambodia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), who has been in U.S. custody since April 2024. Another associate, Lu Zhang, a Chinese national who managed a U.S.-based asset concealment network, pleaded guilty to money laundering conspiracy on May 13, 2024.<\/p>\n

This development follows a report<\/a> by the FBI\u2019s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), which revealed that Americans over the age of 60 were the most affected by crypto-related fraud. According to the law enforcement agency, more than 140,000 complaints linked to digital assets were recorded last year, leading to over $9 billion in losses.<\/p>\n

The post US Justice Department Cracks Down on $36.9M International Crypto Fraud Ring<\/a> appeared first on CryptoPotato<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Five men have pleaded guilty to their roles in laundering more than $36.9 million from victims of an international crypto investment scam conspiracy. The money was stolen from defrauded investors in the U.S. through a web of shell companies, offshore accounts, and digital asset wallets. Details of The Scheme The U.S Department of Justice (DOJ) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3,4,5],"class_list":["post-31952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-crypto","tag-doge","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31952\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}