Department of Justice Agents Seize $8.5 Million in Cryptocurrency and Disrupt Investment Fraud Scheme

RALEIGH, N.C. - Federal agents seized nearly $8.5 million worth of Tether, a cryptocurrency pegged to the U.S. dollar. Investigators traced the seized funds to a cryptocurrency address allegedly linked to money stolen from victims of cryptocurrency investment scams, commonly known as a "pig butchering scheme."

"By seizing these stolen funds, we strike at the heart of organized criminals who use scams to prey on hardworking, innocent citizens," said E.D.N.C. U.S. Attorney Ellis Boyle. "Our office will continue working with the FBI and other law enforcement partners to disrupt fraud schemes, protect victims, and hold bad guys who exploit the promise of new technologies to commit old crimes accountable."

"This substantial cryptocurrency seizure is an example of the FBI's commitment to fight for victims in this ever changing cyber-fraud landscape," said FBI Charlotte Special Agent in Charge James C. Barnacle Jr. "One victim dipped into a child's college savings and a spouse's retirement fund before being locked out of the account, losing hundreds of thousands of dollars in an instant. This seizure helps claw back the money that rightly belongs to victims."

According to court filings, criminal actors approached and recruited victims by disguising themselves to build trust through a business or romantic relationship. Fraudsters typically sent victims an innocuous and misleading text message or an unsolicited message to a social media account or online dating profile. Once they established contact, scammers claimed they could help victims make large profits trading cryptocurrency. Then the criminals steered victims to fictitious cryptocurrency trading platforms that gave the false appearance of being legitimate. These fake platforms displayed fabricated investment portfolios with abnormally large returns to entice victims to invest more money.

When victims later attempted to withdraw funds, the fraudsters refused and froze the accounts. In some cases, the criminals demanded victims pay a "tax" or "penalty" before accessing their money. Some fraudsters even posed as a "cryptocurrency recovery firm," offering to retrieve lost investments for an upfront fee, further compounding the injury.

Victims unknowingly sent their investments to wallets controlled by these scammers rather than to accounts in their own names. Scammers immediately transferred those funds to several other wallets to hide the nature, source, and ownership of the money. Agents and analysts from the FBI traced those funds into and through several cryptocurrency wallets used as a part of the fraud and money laundering scheme, recovering all funds subject to seizure.

Since 2024, the FBI has partnered with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina to seize over $15 million on behalf of victims of cryptocurrency investment fraud. Other seizures include:

• $2.6 million seized on behalf of multiple victims, including a 61-year-old man in Spring Hope and a 50-year-old man in Raleigh. Each victim believed he was in a romantic relationship with the fraudster, exchanging messages via the WhatsApp platform.

• $4.99 million seized on behalf of multiple victims, including a 67-year-old man from Angier. This victim also believed he was in a romantic relationship with the fraudster, using the WhatsApp and Telegram platforms to communicate.

Avoid falling victim to cryptocurrency or romance scam fraud by following these steps:

• If someone you don't know contacts you online or by phone, never give any personal information. In fact, the FBI advises you should always ignore a random stranger's attempt to connect or befriend you, if you don't already know them in real life.

• Do not invest money based on advice from someone you've met solely online.

• Verify the validity of any investment opportunity or cryptocurrency investment with your own independent research, separate and apart from what the unknown scammer tells you.

• If you already invested funds and believe you are or may be a victim of a scheme, do not pay any additional fees or taxes to withdraw your money. Just cap your losses.

• Do not pay for services that claim to recover lost funds. It's a trap.

• Be on the lookout for domain names that impersonate legitimate financial institutions, especially cryptocurrency exchanges.

• Misspelled URLs, often with just a slight deviation, like an extra letter or missing one letter, from the actual financial institutions' real website, may be, indeed almost certainly are, fake.

• If it sounds too good to be true, it is. There is no such thing as a get-rich-quick scheme. Certainly not from a random stranger you never met in person who targeted you on the internet.

The Department of Justice acknowledges Tether for its assistance in effectuating the transfer of these assets.

If you are a victim of a cryptocurrency scam, or other scam involving the use of the Internet, please file a report with the IC3 at https://www.ic3.gov and with the FTC at https://www.reportfraud.ftc.gov.