How the Scheme Worked: Romance, Fake Profits, and Vanishing Money
A federal judge has sentenced Jingliang Su, a Chinese national, to 46 months behind bars for his part in a massive fraud that stole $36.9 million from 174 Americans. The scam followed a now-familiar playbook that investigators call “pig-butchering”—a term that sounds crude but captures exactly what happens. Scammers reach out through dating apps, social media, or text messages, slowly building what feels like a genuine friendship or romance. They’re patient, sometimes chatting for weeks before money ever comes up.
Once trust is established, victims get introduced to what looks like a legitimate cryptocurrency trading platform. They make an initial deposit, watch their account balance climb on slick dashboards filled with green numbers and upward-trending charts, and naturally decide to invest more. The problem? The entire platform is fake. The profits are fiction. And every dollar sent disappears into a network of bank accounts controlled by the criminal syndicate.
That’s where Su came in. His job was to take those incoming victim deposits from U.S. banks and move them offshore fast. He bundled the money and funneled it to an account at a bank in the Bahamas. From there, the cash got converted into USDT—a stablecoin pegged to the U.S. dollar—and sent to digital wallets controlled by operatives in Cambodia. Cambodia has become a major hub for these scam operations, many of which are run out of compounds where workers are trafficked and forced to execute fraud scripts around the clock. The money then got redistributed across Southeast Asia to fund more scam centers. The route—U.S. banks to the Bahamas, then into crypto, then to Cambodia—was designed to make tracing nearly impossible.
Part of a Bigger Crackdown on Crypto Crime
Su isn’t the first person to go down in this investigation. He’s actually the eighth defendant to be sentenced, with prison terms for his co-conspirators ranging from three to more than four years. The court also ordered Su to pay back nearly $27 million in restitution, a sign that prosecutors are increasingly focused on making victims whole, not just locking people up.
This case is part of a much larger push by the Department of Justice. Last year alone, federal prosecutors brought charges against 265 people in crypto-related fraud cases—double the number from the year before. They’ve also seized hundreds of millions of dollars in assets, including recent forfeitures tied to darknet services like the Helix mixer.
DOJ officials are calling this the opening phase of a “global war on scam centers.” They’re embedding cyber investigators in U.S. embassies around the world to speed up wallet tracing and coordinate with foreign law enforcement. And they’re hinting that the next round of indictments will go after the middlemen—specifically, crypto exchanges and over-the-counter brokers who help scammers convert their stolen funds into usable currency without asking questions.
Why Stablecoins Are Both Useful and Dangerous
For regulators, this case puts a spotlight on stablecoins like USDT. On paper, they’re incredibly useful. They let traders move dollar-equivalent value across borders instantly without dealing with banks or wire delays. Decentralized finance platforms love them for the same reason. But that speed and borderless nature also make them perfect for money laundering.
Recent blockchain data shows that USDT moving through high-risk wallets hit record highs last quarter. The number of wallets hit with sanctions climbed more than 70 percent. Treasury officials are now drafting new rules that would force anyone converting large amounts of cash into stablecoins to follow basic due-diligence requirements—even if they don’t technically qualify as a financial institution under current law.
What This Means Going Forward
The takeaway from Su’s sentencing is straightforward: if you help launder money through crypto—whether on purpose or because you didn’t bother to check—you’re going to prison. For crypto exchanges, that means tighter controls on corporate accounts that funnel customer money offshore, especially when the receiving party is in a place with weak regulation. For everyday investors, it’s a reminder to do your homework. Check licensing, verify domain registrations, and make sure you can actually withdraw your money before you send a dime to any platform.
For lawmakers still debating how to regulate stablecoins, this case is a wake-up call. Consumer protections and cross-border enforcement aren’t abstract policy ideas anymore—they’re urgent necessities. And judging by the DOJ’s recent track record, the days of claiming ignorance about how crypto works are over. As one prosecutor put it during Su’s sentencing: “Blockchain may be borderless, but accountability is not.” With scam operations growing and billions being stolen every year, expect the government’s response to get faster, broader, and a lot less forgiving.
