A federal judge sentenced Chinese national Jingliang Su to 46 months in prison, ending a vast “pig butchering” scheme that fraudulently withdrew approximately $37 million from the banking accounts of U.S. citizens. The judge’s sentence was issued by the Department of Justice (DOJ) this week, and is yet another example of the increased sophistication with which transnational cryptocurrency fraudsters operate by exploiting people’s trust and/or romantic relationships to take their life savings.
Su, who pleaded guilty in June to conspiracy to operate an illegal money transmitting business, was a key financial cog in a network that targeted over 174 victims across the United States. He worked as a money launderer in order to conceal the trail of digital transactions associated with the theft of money to prevent law enforcement from tracing or tracking those funds. This case highlights the type of fraud (e.g., industrial fraud) engaged by organized criminal organizations and used by organized crime groups in Southeast Asia to perpetrate global financial crimes.
The Anatomy of a Heartbreak
According to legal documents of the case, Su’s accomplices operated primarily out of scam compounds in Cambodia and contacted their victims by means of unsolicited text messages, social media direct messages and through dating applications. Over the course of weeks, or sometimes months, they would establish trust with the victims through the development of intense personal relationships, often disguising themselves as potential romantic partners or as very close friends. Once this level of trust was established between the victim and the accomplices, the next step in the process would be to get the victim to invest in some form of cryptocurrency.
The victims would then be directed to very sophisticated and professional-looking websites set up to mimic legitimate trading platforms so that they could see the returns from their investments were in fact very high (however these returns were fictitious). After the victims were sufficiently comfortable with their investment, they would attempt to withdraw their money only to find out that they were unable to do so because there were “taxes” or “fees” to be paid prior to the withdrawal or the site had simply gone offline and taken the victim’s money with it.
The Laundromat: From U.S. Banks to Tether
While the “front of house” team handled the psychological manipulation, Su managed the complex backend logistics of money laundering. The Department of Justice revealed that the syndicate used a specific, repeatable pathway to move the stolen cash offshore.
The initial movement of victim funds involved the transfer of funds from victim US banks to fraudulent shell company bank accounts, with eventual wiring to Deltec Bank in the Bahamas. Funds wired to Deltec Bank were converted from fiat to Tether, the largest stablecoin in the world. From Deltec, the Tether was electronically transmitted instantly to the syndicate leaders’ wallets in Cambodia, being completely off the traditional banking system and thus, making the funds nearly impossible to trace.
Industrial-Scale Deception
This case is an example of a larger pattern of criminal fraud activity which stretches through Asia, particularly Cambodia and Myanmar which have become known internationally as the hubs for this type of activity.
Per various reports, scammers are generating tens of billions of dollars worth of fraudulent activities from scam centers within the Mekong region and their revenue is comparable to that of a number of smaller countries. In many instances, these scam centers employ trafficked individuals that have been forced through the use of violence or threats of violence to commit fraudulent acts against foreigners. The increasing level of sophistication and scale at which fraud has been committed has been allowed by the “industrialization” of scams; thus, giving these groups the ability to target thousands of victims at once while executing their scripted operations.
“Made in China, Paid by Seniors”
The sentencing comes just weeks after a fiery hearing in the U.S. Senate, where experts sounded the alarm on the vulnerability of older Americans. In testimony titled “Made in China, Paid by Seniors,” Jacqueline Burns Koven, head of cyber threat intelligence at Chainalysis, described these groups as “highly organized scam conglomerates.”
“Addressing this threat demands a holistic strategy that combines upstream prevention and victim remediation,” Burns Koven noted. She emphasized that while arrests like Su’s are a victory, they are often just disrupting the lower rungs of a much larger ladder. Masterminds, sheltered by corporate structures and geographic borders, are typically beyond the grasp of law enforcement agencies.
Justice Served, But the Threat Remains
Su was sentenced to 46 months in prison, providing about as much closure as possible to the 174 victims involved in this case. Unfortunately, their psychological and financial trauma still exists. In addition to imprisonment, the court ordered Su to pay more than $26.8 million in restitution.
Unfortunately for law enforcement, for every Jingliang Su that is captured, many others are waiting to take his spot. As long as the scam centers in Southeast Asia continue to operate with relative impunity, the digital trap remains set for the lonely, the trusting, and the vulnerable.
