The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Massachusetts has taken legal action to retrieve cryptocurrency related to a scam known as the “pig butchering” operation, which targeted a resident of Massachusetts and 36 others. On March 13, the U.S. Attorney’s Office filed a civil forfeiture action to return $2.3 million worth of various cryptocurrencies, including USD Coin (USDC), Tether (USDT), Ether (ETH), and Solana’s SOL, to the victims of online scams and fraud.
A civil forfeiture action is a legal process in which law enforcement agencies seize assets, such as property or funds, that they suspect are involved in illegal activities. In this case, the assets themselves are considered the defendants in the legal proceedings, rather than any specific individuals.
The cryptocurrencies, which include nearly 300,000 USDC, 1.5 million USDT, 102,000 Tron (TRX), 3,000 SOL, and 14,000 Cardano (ADA), were confiscated from two Binance accounts in January, following an investigation into the “pig butchering” scam that targeted a Massachusetts resident.
“Pig butchering” is a scam method in which fraudsters establish trust online and convince victims to invest in a cryptocurrency scheme before the victims realize they have been defrauded. U.S. regulators have warned investors about this technique and have taken legal action against some individuals involved in such scams.
Authorities began investigating the scheme in the spring of 2023 and discovered that cryptocurrency had been seized from funds connected to 37 victims, including the Massachusetts resident. The investigation revealed that the scam victim was deceived into wiring $400,000 to the scammers, who then transferred the funds to other wallets that were linked to funds from the other 36 victims.
This recent action by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Massachusetts follows the news from last week that the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Chicago had confiscated $1.4 million in USDT from an unhosted virtual cryptocurrency wallet associated with a suspected tech support scam targeting the elderly.
Tether cooperated willingly in the process of recovering the assets, destroying the funds linked to the accused fraudsters and reallocating them to alternative wallets under government supervision for restitution to the victims.
In January, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission issued warnings and charged digital asset platform Debiex with fraud, accusing them of using the “pig butchering” method to defraud investors of $2.3 million. The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network also issued a warning to investors when it issued a “pig butchering” alert late last year.