Chinese Crypto Scammer Sentenced to 46 Months for Role in $37 Million U.S. Fraud

Posted on by

Jingliang Su, a Chinese citizen, has been sentenced to nearly four years behind bars for his involvement in a cryptocurrency fraud scheme. The operation involved building relationships with Americans on social media to gain their confidence before defrauding them. According to a Department of Justice release issued Tuesday, Su laundered approximately $37 million obtained from 174 U.S. victims through scam centers based in Cambodia. Su entered a guilty plea in June to a charge of conspiracy to run an illegal money transmitting business.

This sentencing comes after a year marked by record-level thefts, primarily by Chinese scammers. Fraud hubs operating in Southeast Asian nations such as Myanmar have been connected to these criminal networks in the region.

“This prosecution represents a wider pattern we are seeing: sophisticated criminal syndicates in Southeast Asia leveraging technology and digital currencies to perpetrate large-scale, cross-border fraud,” stated Jacqueline Burns Koven, Chainalysis’s head of cyber threat intelligence, in a note to .

Su and his criminal associates employed inventive methods, including cryptocurrency, to attract targets and clean the illicit funds. The con artists initiated contact with American victims via social media, text messages, or dating apps to establish trust. They subsequently fabricated websites that mimicked legitimate cryptocurrency trading platforms, persuading individuals to transfer their money there.

These strategies, designed to prey on lonely or vulnerable individuals, form the basis of the scam known among Chinese criminals as “pig butchering.” The phrase refers to the process of gradually earning a person’s trust only to suddenly defraud them.

The group utilized Tether, the globe’s biggest stablecoin provider, to shift and conceal the money. The nearly $37 million stolen from victims was moved from the scammers’ U.S. bank accounts to an account in the Bahamas. They then instructed that bank to change the funds into Tether (USDT) stablecoins, which were subsequently sent to a digital wallet under their control in Cambodia.

The problem of American citizens being deceived by Chinese fraudsters has been brought before U.S. lawmakers. Earlier this month, Burns Koven gave a presentation before the Senate named, ‘Made in China, Paid by Seniors: Stopping the Surge of International Scams.’

“Countering this danger requires a comprehensive approach that integrates preventative measures and support for victims, close cooperation between government and private industry, and genuine international coordination among law enforcement agencies, regulators, and business partners,” Burns Koven remarked in a note to .