On November 21, the U.S. Department of Justice disclosed the seizure of roughly $9 million worth of USDT (Tether), part of the freezing of funds tied to a criminal organization involved in romance scams. This action followed Tether's freeze of about $2.25 billion USDT from "external self-hosted wallets" associated with fraudulent activities.
The seized funds were allegedly linked to a group responsible for the "pig-killing" romance scam, a scheme in which individuals establish online relationships, coaxing victims to invest in seemingly legitimate businesses before executing the fraud, leaving the victims with substantial losses.
Acting Assistant Attorney General Nicole Argentieri emphasized the deceptive tactics of these scammers, who exploit individuals by falsely claiming that their investments are generating profits. However, the reality is that these international criminals deceive investors, stealing their cryptocurrency investments, and leaving them with nothing.
Law enforcement efforts in the cryptocurrency landscape aim to combat money laundering and recover unlawfully obtained funds to return them to the victims. The U.S. Secret Service analysts tracked the movement of these cryptocurrencies across various wallet addresses and exchanges, a method recognized as "chain hopping," while acknowledging Tether's involvement in facilitating the transfer of these assets.
Previously, U.S. officials have utilized their authority to seize illicit funds related to crypto-based crimes, such as the seizure of about 70,000 Bitcoins associated with Silk Road in 2020. A cryptocurrency firm, 21.co, reported that the U.S. government held over $5 billion in seized cryptocurrencies based on their analysis.
The Justice Department announced plans for "significant cryptocurrency enforcement actions" in coordination with the U.S. Treasury Department and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission on November 21. Many anticipated that this announcement referred to the reported $4 billion settlement with Binance, which might lead to Changpeng Zhao's resignation from the company.
