SEIZES $9 MILLION IN CRYPTO AMASSED BY FRAUDSTERS
The United States Justice Department recently announced that it had seized some $9 million worth of cryptocurrency that had been amassed by an organization that had defrauded some 70 victims via “romance scams and cryptocurrency confidence scams,” also known as “pig butchering.”
In a written statement, Acting Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, noted “Through this significant seizure, we disrupted the financial infrastructure of an organized network of scammers who stole millions from victims across the United States. These scammers prey on ordinary investors by creating websites that tell victims their investments are working to make them money. The truth is that these international criminal actors are simply stealing cryptocurrency and leaving victims with nothing …. The department hopes this recovery of assets will bring some closure and a sense of justice to the over 70 victims affected by this series of scams. This seizure should also serve as a reminder to cybercriminals that, although the current landscape of the cryptocurrency ecosystem may seem like an ideal way to launder ill-gotten gains, law enforcement will continue to develop the expertise needed to follow the money and seize it back for victims.”
So, pig butchers do get slaughtered, on occasion.
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