The United States Ministry of Justice represses another scan of cryptocurrency fraud.
The losses are tens of millions, and it is expected that more will be identified.
A scheme developed
The American lawyer’s office in the Washington western district laid Civil action on Tuesday, demanding the confiscation of cryptocurrency assets worth $ 7.1 million. The funds were seized during an investigation into a regime involving fraudulent investments in oil and gas, which American lawyer, Teal Miller, announced.
The active ingredients are only a fraction of the $ 97 million obtained by the Coconspirators between June 2022 and July 2024, which Homeland Security Investigations seized in December from last year.
“The co-parmers of this fraud have moved their poorly acquired gain through various cryptocurrency accounts to try to whiten the money stolen from the victims,” said lawyer Miller.
“The federal investigators and prosecutors of our office moved as quickly as possible to trace and grasp the cryptocurrency so that certain losses can be returned to the victims.”
According to the filing and the other cases files, the layout was presented in the form of entire accounts for the purchase of storage of oil tanks in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, or Houston, which extended at least August 2022 to August 2024.
The victims were convinced to send money to these accounts, where the conspirators indicated that investors could make significant profits by praising the storage of the oil reservoir to others. At least seven separate entities have been marked where funds have been sent.
However, the good news ended there, as once the funds are sent, no other investment information has been provided, and the co-sections have continued to answer.
How were the funds moved
A Newcastle resident, Washington, Geoffrey K. Auyeung, 47, was charged with cocoonspirator in the United States in August 2024, accused of having received the majority of funds generated by the deceptive plan.
The money was quickly mixed with one or more of the 81 accounts at least in various institutions, offshore or not, either with one of the 19 different cryptography accounts.
The assets were then channeled in various cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, USDT, USDC and Ethereum, the majority of which were transferred to accounts with the exchange of Binance.
The confiscation deposit also indicates that the cryptographic accounts, which were seized, were linked to people in Russia and Nigeria, where some of the victims’ funds, used to buy digital assets, were also sent to exchanges in these countries.
At least one of the monetary markets in Russia or Nigeria would have facilitated money laundering for transnational criminal organizations, including terrorist organizations and other parties which are known to violate international trade sanctions.
At the time of Auyeung’s arrest, $ 2.3 million was seized with its bank accounts, which is added to the $ 7.1 million in crypto that the government seeks to lose.
If the court approves confiscation, the funds will be distributed accordingly to the victims. Investigators, so far, have identified dozens of these cases, the total amount of exploits reaching approximately $ 17.9 million, which should increase as more victims are identified.
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