US Attorney Seeks $2.3M Crypto Scam Recovery

The United States Attorney’s Office in Massachusetts recently launched legal proceedings to recover cryptocurrency associated with a scam known as the “pig butchering” operation. This scheme targeted a Massachusetts resident and 36 other victims.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office has initiated a civil forfeiture action to return $2.3 million in various cryptocurrencies, including USD Coin (USDC), Tether (USDT), Ether (ETH), and Solana’s SOL, to the victims of online scams and fraud.

Civil forfeiture is a legal process where law enforcement seizes assets suspected of being involved in illegal activities. In this case, the assets are the focal point of the legal proceedings, rather than any individual.

The cryptocurrencies, totaling nearly 300,000 USDC, 1.5 million USDT, 102,000 Tron (TRX), 3,000 SOL, and 14,000 Cardano (ADA), were confiscated from two Binance accounts in January following an investigation into the “pig butchering” scam that targeted a Massachusetts resident.

“Pig butchering” is a fraudulent technique where scammers gain the victim’s trust online, convincing them to invest in a crypto scheme before disappearing with the funds. U.S. regulators have warned investors about this technique and have taken legal action against perpetrators.

Authorities began investigating the scheme in the spring of 2023, revealing that cryptocurrency funds tied to 37 victims, including the Massachusetts resident, were confiscated.

In a related incident, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Chicago seized $1.4 million in USDT from an unhosted virtual cryptocurrency wallet associated with a suspected tech support scam targeting the elderly.

Tether cooperated in the asset recovery process, destroying the funds linked to the alleged fraudsters and reallocating them to alternative wallets under government supervision for restitution to the victims.

Earlier this year, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission issued warnings and charged digital asset platform Debiex with fraud for using “pig butchering” to scam $2.3 million from investors. The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network also issued a warning to investors in a late last year alert about “pig butchering.”