U.S. District Court indicts two people for allegedly participating in cryptocurrency scam money laundering, involving $73 million

A U.S. District Court unsealed a grand jury indictment today charging two Chinese nationals with laundering at least $73 million through shell companies associated with a cryptocurrency investment scam. Daren Li, 41, a dual citizen of China and St. Kitts and Nevis who resides in China, Cambodia, and the United Arab Emirates, was arrested at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport on April 12 and subsequently transferred to the Central District of California. Yicheng Zhang, 38, a Chinese national who resides in Temple City, was arrested and arraigned today in Los Angeles. Both Li and Zhang are charged with conspiracy to launder money and six substantive counts of international money laundering. According to court documents, Li, Zhang, and other co-conspirators allegedly managed an international money laundering ring that laundered proceeds from a cryptocurrency “pig-killing” scam. Victims in the scam were deceived into transferring millions of dollars into U.S. bank accounts opened in the names of dozens of shell companies whose sole apparent purpose was to facilitate money laundering. The network of money launderers then facilitated the transfer of these funds to other domestic and international bank accounts and cryptocurrency platforms to conceal the source, nature, ownership, and control of the funds. The scam involved laundering more than $73 million through U.S. financial institutions, which were transferred to bank accounts in the Bahamas and converted into the virtual asset USDT. A cryptocurrency wallet involved in the scam received more than $341 million in virtual assets.