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US Arrests Two Chinese Nationals Over $73 Million Crypto Scam
(Reuters) – U.S. authorities have charged two Chinese citizens in a cryptocurrency scam that laundered at least $73 million from defrauded victims, the Justice Department said on Friday.
U.S. officials arrested Yicheng Zhang in Los Angeles on Thursday, according to an indictment unsealed later that day in the U.S. District Court in the Central District of California. Daren Li, a dual citizen of China and St. Kitts and Nevis, was arrested at the Atlanta airport in April.
The United States has accused the two of being involved in a kind of cryptocurrency investment scam known as pig slaughter, which has become a billion-dollar global industry.
The defendants allegedly instructed the conspirators to open U.S. bank accounts in the names of shell companies.
Victims were tricked online into depositing money into these accounts, funds which were then laundered through U.S. financial institutions into bank accounts in the Bahamas.
“While fraud in the cryptocurrency markets takes many forms and hides in many distant places, its perpetrators are not beyond the reach of the law,” U.S. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said in a statement.
Li and Zhang are both charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering and six counts of international money laundering. If convicted, the defendants face a maximum of 20 years in prison on each charge, the Justice Department said.
(Reporting by Brendan O’Boyle; Editing by Nick Macfie)