A twin Chinese language and St. Kitts and Nevis nationwide was sentenced to twenty years in jail in absentia for his function in a global cryptocurrency funding scheme (often known as pig butchering or romance baiting) that defrauded victims of greater than $73 million.
In pig butchering scams, criminals use messaging apps, courting platforms, and social media accounts to construct belief with their targets earlier than introducing fraudulent funding schemes. Ultimately, slightly than investing the funds to ship the promised large earnings, the scammers drain victims’ cryptocurrency wallets.
42-year-old Daren Li pleaded responsible in November 2024 to conspiracy to launder funds obtained by means of “pig butchering” scams operated from facilities in Cambodia after his April 2024 arrest at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta Worldwide Airport.
Nevertheless, Li fled in December 2025 after slicing off his ankle monitor, changing into a fugitive earlier than sentencing in California federal courtroom. Along with the 20-year jail sentence, he additionally acquired three years of supervised launch after the jail time period.
“As a part of a global cryptocurrency funding rip-off, Daren Li and his co-conspirators laundered over $73 million {dollars} stolen from American victims,” stated Assistant Legal professional Normal A. Tysen Duva of the Legal Division. “The Court docket’s sentence displays the gravity of Li’s conduct, which prompted devastating losses to victims all through our nation.”
Court docket paperwork revealed that Li and co-conspirators have been a part of a global crime syndicate that used a community of cash launderers to maneuver hundreds of thousands stolen from dozens of victims to U.S. financial institution accounts linked to roughly 74 shell firms, then transferred funds to home and worldwide accounts and cryptocurrency platforms to hide their origins.
He instructed accomplices to open financial institution accounts and switch greater than $73 million to Deltec Financial institution within the Bahamas for conversion into cryptocurrency, together with Tether. The investigators additionally found greater than $341 million in cryptocurrency in one of many crypto wallets the fraud ring used for cash laundering.
Li is the primary defendant immediately concerned in receiving sufferer funds to be sentenced amongst eight co-conspirators who’ve additionally pleaded responsible.
The Justice Division charged 4 extra suspects in December with involvement in one other pig butchering scheme linked to over $80 million in losses.
The FBI’s 2024 Web Crime Report famous that funding scammers stole over $6.5 billion from 47,919 victims, up from $4.57 billion in 2023.
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