A 45-year-old Chinese national, Jiangling Su, has received a four-year prison sentence for his role in a 37 million crypto laundering scam

A 45-year-old Chinese national, Jiangling Su, has received a 46-month prison sentence for his role in a 37 million crypto laundering scam that affected nearly 174 Americans. Su pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to operate an illegal money-transmitting business and was ordered to pay over $26 million in restitution.

U.S. District Judge Gary Klausner sentenced Su on January 27, according to a statement released by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California. Prosecutors say the Chinese national was part of a global crime network that tricked U.S. victims into sending money to accounts controlled by Su and eight co-conspirators. 

The prosecutors also pointed out that the co-conspirators reached out to victims in the U.S. through online dating, calls, and texts, promoting fake crypto investments via fake websites posing as legitimate crypto trading platforms. The funds were later laundered through U.S. shell companies, international bank accounts, and digital asset wallets. Over $36.9 million was eventually funneled through an account at Deltec Bank in the Bahamas, before being converted to Tether’s USDT.

From there, the funds were redirected to the co-conspirators in Cambodia, who then transferred the USDT to the scam’s leaders in centers throughout the region. However, the scammers told the victims that their investments were growing when, in fact, the victims’ money was being stolen.

Duva says criminals are weaponizing the internet for fraud 

Assistant Attorney General Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division said criminals in the digital age are finding new ways to weaponize the internet for fraud. Su and his co-conspirators used these unscrupulous means to scam nearly 200 Americans out of their hard-earned money.

Meanwhile, Assistant AG Duva claims that the Criminal Division and its law enforcement partners have evolved over the years and have caught several large-scale scammers targeting people through social media, phones, and fake websites to steal from them. The stolen funds are then moved through crypto or wire transfers outside the United States.

“New investment opportunities may sound intriguing, but they have a dark side: attracting criminals who, in this case, stole then laundered tens of millions of dollars from their victims.”

–Bill Essayli, First Assistant Attorney General for the District of California

On the other hand, Essayli thanked U.S. law enforcement partners for their efforts to bring Su and his co-conspirators to justice. He also encouraged the investing public to exercise greater caution, noting that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

CCIPS coordinates cybercrime investigations and prosecutions 

The Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section (CCIPS) coordinated with domestic and international law enforcement agencies in the investigations and prosecutions in this case. The Criminal Division and its partners will cut off access to victim proceeds and tools that enabled the fraud by seizing and forfeiting crime-linked crypto. It will also achieve this by disrupting domestic and international money laundering networks and dismantling digital infrastructure used by scammers to target U.S. victims. 

The Criminal Division will also engage its network of international Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property prosecutors (ICHIPs), who are strategically posted worldwide to coordinate investigations. The CCIPS has secured the convictions of over 180 cybercriminals and court orders for the return of victim funds totaling over $350 million since 2020.

Meanwhile, USSS’s Global Investigative Operations Center is also investigating the case. The U.S. Marshals Service, Homeland Security Investigations’ El Camino Real Financial Crimes Task Force, U.S. Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service, Customs and Border Protection’s National Targeting Center, and the Dominican National Police provided further valuable assistance.

On the other hand, the case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Nisha Chandran of the Major Fraud Section, along with Justice Department Trial Attorney Stephanie Schwartz of the CCIPS. Trial Attorney Tamara Livshiz of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section, as well as Assistant U.S. Attorneys Alexander Gorin and Maxwell Coll of the National Security Division, were also part of the prosecution team.

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