Justice Department Seizes $15 Billion in Bitcoin in ‘Pig Slaughter’ Scam

the Ministry of Justice He seized $15 billion worth Bitcoin It is kept in cryptocurrency wallets owned by a man who oversaw a massive operationSlaughtering pigs“A Cambodia-based scam,” prosecutors said Tuesday.

The confiscation operation is considered the largest confiscation operation undertaken by the company Ministry of Justice In history.

An indictment charging alleged pig butcher, Chen Qi, was unsealed Tuesday in federal court in Brooklyn, New York.

Zhi, also known as “Vincent,” remains at large, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York.

He is identified in court filings as the founder and chairman of Prince Holdings, a multinational business conglomerate based in Cambodia, which prosecutors said has grown “clandestinely… into one of the largest transnational criminal organizations in Asia.”

US Attorney Joseph Nocella said Che “operated one of the largest investment fraud operations in history, fueling an illicit industry reaching epidemic proportions.”

“The Prince Group’s investment frauds have caused billions of dollars in losses and untold misery to victims around the world, including here in New York, at the expense of individuals who have been trafficked and forced to work against their will,” Nocella said.

The Prince Group, which does business in more than 30 countries, operated “fraudulent forced labor complexes throughout Cambodia,” the US Attorney’s Office said in a press release.

“Individuals held against their will in complexes involved in cryptocurrency investment fraud schemes, known as ‘pig slaughter’ scams, that have stolen billions of dollars from victims in the United States and around the world,” the statement read.

The scams tricked people contacted via social media and online messaging apps into transferring cryptocurrencies into accounts controlled by the scheme with false promises that the cryptocurrencies would be invested and profits would be made, according to the office.

“In reality, the money was stolen from the victims and laundered for the benefit of the perpetrators,” the statement said. “Scam perpetrators often build relationships with their victims over time, earning their trust before stealing their money.”

Hundreds of people were trafficked and forced to work in fraud complexes, “often under threat of violence,” prosecutors said.

Zhi and a network of senior Prince Group executives are accused of using political influence in several countries to protect their criminal enterprise and paying bribes to public officials to avoid action by law enforcement authorities targeting the scheme, according to prosecutors.