RALEIGH, N.C. - The United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina announced that federal agents seized over $61 million worth of Tether, a cryptocurrency pegged to the U.S. dollar. Investigators traced the seized funds to cryptocurrency addresses allegedly associated with the laundering of criminally derived proceeds stolen from victims of cryptocurrency investment scams, commonly known as a "pig butchering scheme".

"The seizure of a staggering $61 Million dollars' worth of funds linked to cryptocurrency fraud shows that, in the Eastern District of North Carolina, cheaters never win. Our asset forfeiture team worked along with HSI to take the profit out of crime," said U.S. Attorney Ellis Boyle.

According to court filings, criminal actors targeted and recruited victims by establishing trust under the pretense of a romantic relationship. Once trust was secured, the scammers claimed to possess specialized techniques for generating substantial profits through cryptocurrency trading. They directed victims to fake cryptocurrency trading platforms, which closely resembled legitimate platforms in both name and appearance. These fake platforms displayed made up investment portfolios showing unusually high returns, deliberately designed to entice victims to invest more and more money. When victims attempted to withdraw their funds, they could not and were often presented with various excuses, such as the requirement to pay a "tax" or "fee" to release their funds. The scammers used these tactics to further exploit and extract even more money from their victims.

Once the victims' money transferred to a cryptocurrency wallet under the scammers' control, the crooks quickly routed that money through many other wallets to hide the nature, source, control, and ownership of that stolen money. In this case, agents and analysts from Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in Raleigh, North Carolina received a report of alleged investment fraud from a victim through the HSI Tip Line. Through investigative efforts, agents and analysts traced the victim's money into and through multiple cryptocurrency wallets used in the fraud and money laundering scheme. Several of these wallets still contained substantial amounts of victims' money subject to seizure and forfeiture.

"Criminal actors and professional money launderers use cyber-enabled fraud schemes to swindle their victims and conceal their ill-gotten gains," said HSI Charlotte Acting Special Agent in Charge Kyle D. Burns. "HSI special agents work diligently to trace the illicit proceeds of crime across the globe to disrupt and dismantle the transnational criminal organizations that seek to defraud hardworking Americans."

The Department of Justice and HSI acknowledges Tether for its assistance in transferring these assets.