United States prosecutors have claimed victories in two separate cases involving crypto pig butchering this week. Funds were recovered in one, and a former bank boss was jailed in another.
On Aug. 22, the US District Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina announced the seizure of nearly $5 million worth of Tether (USDT) belonging to a pig butchering ring.
It stated that the funds were traced to crypto addresses allegedly linked to laundering proceeds stolen from crypto pig butchering scams.
US Attorney Michael Easley said that Americans are losing their life savings to these scams, as funds are being rapidly transferred to crypto accounts overseas,” before adding, “In this case, one victim lost his entire individual retirement account to a scam.”
Pig butchering occurs when the scammer builds an online relationship with the victim, who is “fattened up” before being lured into investing in a fraudulent project that results in a financial loss.
In this case, cybercriminals approach victims under the guise of a romantic relationship to develop their trust before enticing them to invest in a fictitious crypto trading platform bearing a similar name to a genuine one.
Fortunately, Federal agents and FBI analysts were able to trace the victim’s funds into and through various crypto wallets, which were then seized with assistance from Tether.
This was not the only pig butchering incident this week.
Ex-Kansas bank CEO jailed for looting his own bank
On Aug. 19, the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Kansas reported that the former CEO of Heartland Tri-State Bank in Elkhart, Kansas, Shan Hanes, was sentenced to over 24 years in prison.
Hanes pleaded guilty to embezzling $47.1 million from the bank through 11 wire transfers to crypto wallets between May and July 2023.
While he was a victim of the pig butchering scheme, he pilfered money from a local church, an investment club, and even his daughter’s college savings account to fund the scheme. The funds were transferred to purportedly buy more crypto as the scammers insisted they needed it to unlock his supposed returns, reported CNBC.
The bank was insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), which absorbed the $47.1 million loss, but Hanes’ fraudulent actions caused the bank to fail and resulted in investor losses of $9 million.
Heartland Tri-State Bank. Source: Medium
Related: Pig-butchering scams morph into DeFi threats
Regular crypto joes are in scammer’s crosshairs, too.
On Aug. 21, a security professional posted a warning on X about a scam involving an Asian woman familiar with crypto trading.
She reportedly lures victims into racking up profits on a spurious crypto platform before charging them a 15% withdrawal fee.
It is just one example of the multitude of pig butchering scams that have infested social media and dating platforms.
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