The Justice Department asked the agency to seize $225 million on Wednesday from the so-called “pig slaughter,” a term that describes the scammers building the trust of their victims over time and then tricking them into handing over a lot of money. The Ministry of Justice said the money held by the scam in USDT Stablecoins was laundered through crypto exchange OKX. The agency said it was the largest funding in the U.S. ever linked to a crypto confidence program.
Although the prosecutor is not complainthey do say that these funds are related to the “scam” in the Philippines. These areas are often many workers who work, labor tempting victims to separate rooms with their cryptocurrency, e.g. Bitcoinor cash. According to the employment of transnational crime rings, many of these workers were forced to go against their will. United Nations.
The Justice Department was able to identify more than 430 victims with funds washed out of their victims associated with 144 OKX accounts. One of these victims is Shan Hanes, former CEO of Heartland Tri-State Bank, Kansas. In August 2024, Hanes is Sentenced $47 million of stolen funds in investment he believed was a cryptocurrency investment opportunity, which proved to be a scam and was therefore jailed for 24 years.
“These programs harm U.S. victims every year and cost them billions of dollars each year,” Matthew Galeotti, head of the Justice Department’s criminal division, said in a statement.
Losses from cryptocurrency scams have accelerated in the United States in the past five years annual report About FBI Internet Crime. The money Americans lost to crypto scammers soared 66% to $9.3 billion from 2023 to 2024, and the number of complaints received by the agency more than doubled to nearly 150,000, government agencies said.
The most common crime associated with cryptocurrencies is blackmail, or when bad actors manipulate photos or videos to create explicit content and lure victims to send cryptocurrencies. The second most common type is investment fraud, or when criminals send money to victims, they promise to earn money.
This includes former bank CEO Hanes. “He is the slaughtered pig,” Write Hans’ attorney was pronounced. “Mr. Hans’ vulnerability to the Pig Butcher’s program has led him to make some very bad decisions, and for this he is very sorry for the damage to the bank and the losses to shareholders.”
