The US authorities has seized 134.5 BTC, or $15 billion price of Bitcoin, held by a person who ran a “pig butchering” fraud operation primarily based in Cambodia. Per the DOJ, the alleged pig butcherer, Chen Zhi, remains to be at massive.
Zhi, who’s also called “Vincent,” stays at massive, based on the U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace for the Jap District of New York. Zhi was recognized in courtroom filings because the founder and chairman of Prince Holding Group, a multinational enterprise conglomerate primarily based in Cambodia.
“People held in opposition to their will within the compounds engaged in cryptocurrency funding fraud schemes, often called ‘pig butchering’ scams, that stole billions of {dollars} from victims in the US and world wide,” the discharge mentioned. The $15 billion Bitcoin seizure is the biggest forfeiture motion by the DOJ in its historical past.
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Crypto crimes have turn into a controversial matter on the regulatory degree, particularly with the current loosening of laws within the US. Crime and fraud are all the time a threat when coping with crypto, as could be seen in main crimes involving exchanges like FTX and TornadoCash up to now.
