US Seizes $9 Million in Tether Allegedly Linked to Pig Butchering Crypto Scams

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has seized $9 cardinal successful tether (USDT) allegedly linked to “pig butchering” crypto scams. The Justice Department explained that U.S. Secret Service agents and analysts tracked the laundering of victims’ crypto deposits done galore cryptocurrency addresses, wherever they were exchanged for assorted cryptocurrencies.

DOJ Seizes $9M successful USDT

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Tuesday “the seizure of astir $9 cardinal worthy of tether, a cryptocurrency pegged to the U.S. dollar.” The Justice Department detailed:

These seized funds were traced to cryptocurrency addresses allegedly associated with an enactment that exploited implicit 70 victims done romance scams and cryptocurrency assurance scams, which are wide known arsenic ‘pig butchering.’

Acting Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division explained that these scammers people regular investors done deceptive websites, falsely claiming that their investments are generating profits. “The information is that these planetary transgression actors are simply stealing cryptocurrency and leaving victims with nothing,” she said.

The acting lawyer wide stressed: “The section hopes this betterment of assets volition bring immoderate closure and a consciousness of justness to the implicit 70 victims affected by this bid of scams.”

Court documents uncover that criminals collaborate to person victims to deposit cryptocurrency by falsely portraying the transactions arsenic investments with reputable firms and cryptocurrency exchanges. “In reality, the purported firms and cryptocurrency exchanges were non-existent trading platforms,” the DOJ noted.

“Agents and analysts from the U.S. Secret Service (USSS) were capable to hint those unfortunate deposits and observed that the funds were rapidly laundered done dozens of cryptocurrency addresses and exchanged for respective antithetic cryptocurrencies, a wealth laundering method often referred to arsenic ‘chain hopping,’” the Justice Department continued, adding:

These techniques are utilized to ‘layer’ the proceeds of transgression enactment into caller cryptocurrency ecosystems, each to obfuscate the nature, source, control, and ownership of those proceeds.

This week, Tether announced that it voluntarily froze $225 cardinal successful USDT successful transportation with a DOJ probe relating to pig butchering crypto schemes. Tether called it “the largest-ever frost of USDT successful history.”

A concerning inclination of pig butchering crypto scams has been sweeping crossed the globe, prompting urgent warnings from instrumentality enforcement agencies worldwide. In August past year, U.S. authorities expressed interest implicit the alarming popularity of pig butchering scams. In April of this year, the DOJ seized cryptocurrency worthy $112 cardinal successful a pig butchering scam crackdown. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued a informing past week, highlighting that U.S. taxpayers are presently the most targeted demographic for pig butchering schemes.

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