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A twin Chinese language and St. Kitts and Nevis nationwide was sentenced to 20 years in prison in absentia for his position in a global cryptocurrency funding scheme (often known as pig butchering or romance baiting) that defrauded victims of greater than $73 million.
In pig butchering scams, criminals use messaging apps, relationship platforms, and social media accounts to construct belief with their targets earlier than introducing fraudulent funding schemes. In the long run, fairly than investing the funds to ship the promised large earnings, the scammers drain victims’ cryptocurrency wallets.
42-year-old Daren Li pleaded guilty in November 2024 to conspiracy to launder funds obtained by “pig butchering” scams operated from facilities in Cambodia after his April 2024 arrest at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta Worldwide Airport.
Nonetheless, Li fled in December 2025 after chopping off his ankle monitor, turning into a fugitive earlier than sentencing in California federal courtroom. Along with the 20-year prison sentence, he additionally obtained three years of supervised launch after the prison time period.
“As a part of a global cryptocurrency funding rip-off, Daren Li and his co-conspirators laundered over $73 million {dollars} stolen from American victims,” said Assistant Lawyer Basic A. Tysen Duva of the Felony Division. “The Courtroom’s sentence displays the gravity of Li’s conduct, which brought on devastating losses to victims all through our nation.”
Court documents revealed that Li and co-conspirators had been a part of a global crime syndicate that used a community of cash launderers to maneuver thousands and thousands stolen from dozens of victims to U.S. financial institution accounts linked to roughly 74 shell corporations, then transferred funds to home and worldwide accounts and cryptocurrency platforms to hide their origins.
He instructed accomplices to open financial institution accounts and switch greater than $73 million to Deltec Financial institution in the Bahamas for conversion into cryptocurrency, together with Tether. The investigators additionally found greater than $341 million in cryptocurrency in one of many crypto wallets the fraud ring used for cash laundering.
Li is the primary defendant instantly concerned in receiving sufferer funds to be sentenced amongst eight co-conspirators who have also pleaded guilty.
The Justice Division charged four additional suspects in December with involvement in one other pig butchering scheme linked to over $80 million in losses.
The FBI’s 2024 Internet Crime Report famous that funding scammers stole over $6.5 billion from 47,919 victims, up from $4.57 billion in 2023.
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