U.S. Attorney’s Office Recovers and Forfeits More Than $600K in Cryptocurrency from Fraud Scheme

David X. Sullivan, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, and P.J. O'Brien, Special Agent in Charge of the New Haven Division of the FBI, today announced that the U.S. Attorney's Office, working with the FBI and other law enforcement agencies, has recovered and forfeited more than $600,000 in cryptocurrency associated with a fraud scheme.

As alleged in court documents, in September 2025, a Connecticut resident identified as "T.M." received a letter purporting to be from "Ledger Security & Compliance." The letter claimed that T.M.'s Ledger device, which is a device used for storing cryptocurrency, needed to undergo a new mandatory security check. In reality, when T.M. followed the instructions in the letter, the fraudsters were able to compromise T.M.'s Ledger device and steal approximately $234,000 in cryptocurrency.

The FBI and Connecticut State Police traced the cryptocurrency transactions through multiple cryptocurrency wallets and successfully seized approximately $600,000 worth of Tether, a form of cryptocurrency. The U.S. Attorney's Office filed a civil forfeiture complaint (3:26-cv-28) alleging that the Tether cryptocurrency was the proceeds of wire fraud and that it was involved in money laundering. On March 31, 2026, the U.S. District Court entered a decree of forfeiture.

Generally, the U.S. Attorney's Office first seeks to forfeit the cryptocurrency, then works with the Department of Justice's Money Laundering, Narcotics and Forfeiture Section to, in many cases, return it to crime victims so that victims have clear title to the property without risk of further litigation.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney David C. Nelson.

More information on cryptocurrency fraud schemes and where to report related criminal activity is available here: https://www.ic3.gov/CrimeInfo/Cryptocurrency.