The US has initiated a forfeiture case to seize nearly $200,000 worth of USDT held on Binance linked to a $1.1 million pig slaughter scam.
The funds in question are related to two pig slaughter scams that defrauded an unidentified victim of more than $1 million. documents foot The District Court for the District of Columbia details this information.
According to the documents, the USDT in question is suspected to be the proceeds of “wire fraud, wire fraud conspiracy, money laundering, and money laundering conspiracy.”
Two tricks
The documents describe how an unidentified victim fell prey to two pig slaughter scams, resulting in a loss of nearly $1.1 million between January 2021 and December 2022.
In the first scam, the victim struck up a romantic relationship with the scammer, Eva Marcos, via Facebook. Marcus also had a LinkedIn page.
According to the Deposit“Marcus was an engineering consultant from Boston, Massachusetts, working temporarily on a mining project in Turkey. Marcus and VICTIM developed a romantic relationship, communicating by phone and by email.
Marcus misled the unknown victim, leading them to believe she was the owner of a diamond mine, and the victim was tricked into believing that the mine had exploded and that Marcus needed money to hire a lawyer to return to America. This resulted in the victim transferring more than $400,000.
The anonymous person entered into a second romantic relationship with someone named Lisa Warren on Facebook. Warren identified herself as a cryptocurrency investor and convinced the person to invest $55,000 in Bitcoin (BTC).
Eventually, the victim was convinced to sell his home and invest the proceeds, sending approximately $600,000 in cryptocurrency. After only recovering $15,000 and doing some research, the victim realized she had fallen for a scam and reported the incident to the police.
“In total, (the victim) sent Warren $587,197 worth of cryptocurrency including transaction and exchange fees,” according to the court filing.
The FBI traced some fraudulent cryptocurrency transactions to a Binance account under the name Pastor Henry OkoloWho converted BTC to $196,721 USD. Binance froze the funds and notified the FBI, which confiscated them.
“The defendant’s property is currently in the custody of the FBI and will be transferred to the U.S. Marshals Service in the District of Columbia,” the document states.
Romance scams and pig slaughter
on Mondaythe Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has advised Americans on how to handle the situation if someone they are romantically interested in online is offering them investment advice.
“No one would think their online love interest would scam them, but scammers are good at what they do,” the FTC noted.
Romance scams, often known as pig slaughter scams, involve scammers who befriend victims under the guise of a potential love interest. Eventually, individuals fall victim to scam cryptocurrency investments, and the perpetrators disappear without a trace.
Pig butcher scams typically begin when bad actors gain the trust of an unsuspecting victim and then ask them to make large investments in lucrative schemes. After the victim transfers the money, the scammers disappear with the money.
Nithin Kamath, founder of Zerodha, States“As the name suggests, a pig slaughter scam involves fattening the victim before slaughter. Scammers gain the trust of users using fake profiles. They use the claim of love and friendship to gain the trust of users and then get them to send money for high-yielding jobs and investments and steal the money. These scams are global, and their scope is staggering.
