US Govt. Files Forfeiture Action Against Scam-Linked Tether Held in Binance
Documents filed in the US District Court of Columbia showed that the government has launched a forfeiture complaint against $200,000 worth of Tether (USDT) held in Binance exchange. The cryptos were linked to a popular pig-butchering crypto scam worth $1.1 million.
The court describes the nation of action as “wire fraud, wire fraud conspiracy, money laundering, and money laundering conspiracy activity.”
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) seized funds in USDT from criminals abroad involved in “pig-butchering” scams, the documents revealed. It is a type of online investment scam where perpetrators create fake profiles to lure victims into fraudulent investment schemes.
Reportedly, an anonymous victim of two separate pig-butchering scams made a complaint to the police. According to the statement, they had lost around $1.1 million between January 2021 and December 2022.
The US is seeking to “lawfully forfeit” the Tether crypto to:
A victim developed relationship with the first scammer on Facebook’s dating app in the name Eva Markus, in December 2020. The account had a women profile picture claiming as Markus, investigations revealed.
The scammer had a LinkedIn profile with same name, claiming to be an engineering consultant from Boston, currently in Turkey.
In Jan 2021, Markus told the victim that the diamond mine that she was working exploded, convincing the victim to send funds to hire an attorney to return to the US. The victim reportedly transferred over $400,000.
In a second romance scam, the victim fell to the trap of another scammer, claiming to be Lisa Warren. The perpetrator convinced the victim to invest in crypto and transfer funds to a wallet controlled by Warren.
In an attempt to recoup the losses incurred from
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