Crypto Laundering Scheme Lands Chinese National 46 Months in US Prison

Jingliang Su, A 45-year-old Chinese national, has been sentenced to almost four years in US federal prison for helping launder nearly US$37 million (AU$56.6 million) in illicit crypto investment proceeds.

Su was sentenced in Los Angeles by US District Judge R. Gary Klausner and ordered to pay more than US$26 million (AU$39.7 million) in restitution, according to the US Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California.

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Su and the International Crypto Fraud Ring

Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division said Su worked with an international fraud ring that contacted people in the US through texts, phone calls and online dating platforms, steering them into fake cryptocurrency investments. 

This defendant and his co-conspirators scammed 174 Americans out of their hard-earned money. In the digital age, criminals have found new ways to weaponize the internet for fraud.

A. Tysen Duva, Assistant Attorney General of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division

Victims believed they were trading on legitimate platforms and seeing their balances grow, but the sites were controlled by the scammers. The group moved funds through US shell companies, digital-asset wallets and overseas bank accounts.

In total, about US$36.9 million (AU$56.4 million) was routed to an account at Deltec Bank in the Bahamas and then converted into Tether’s USDT stablecoin. From there, co-conspirators in Cambodia allegedly distributed the USDT to leaders of scam centers across the region. Authorities say they have identified 174 US victims.

Su pleaded guilty in June to one count of conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business. 

He is one of eight defendants to admit guilt so far, including Shengsheng He, 39, of La Puente, California, who received a sentence of more than four years. Prosecutors described the case as part of a broader wave of schemes in which criminal groups “steal then launder tens of millions of dollars” using crypto and cross-border transfers.

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