Shengsheng He, a California man who helped with nearly $37 million in laundry stolen from US investors through global cryptocurrency fraud, was sentenced Monday to 51 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $26.9 million in reparations, federal prosecutors said.
The La Puente, California resident pleaded guilty to a conspiracy to run a remittance business that was licensed in April.
He co-owns Axis Digital Limited, a Bahamas-based company that is used to receive and transfer victim funds, according to the Department of Justice.
The scheme relied on unsolicited messages, phone calls and dating app conversations to build trust with the victims.
“The conspirators then encouraged victims to invest fraudulent digital assets,” DOJ wrote. “The scammers will actually tell the victims that the investment is highly valued because the funds that were sent to the scammer have been stolen.”
When the victims sent the money, the funds were poured into a single-axis digital account at Deltec Bank in the Bahamas, then converted into tethered (USDT) stubcoins, which were then moved into wallets controlled by scammers.
Authorities said the funds were routed through shell companies and overseas accounts to blur its origins.
Prosecutors said the fraud was run from Cambodia’s “pig slaughter” centre.
Pig slaughter fraud is usually a massive digital fraud scheme, which in 2024 won $9 billion according to chain analysis. The victims believed they were investing in legitimate digital assets, but their money was washed across a network of accounts across multiple countries.
The Department of Justice Decryption.
His case is part of a wider crackdown on crypto-related fraud. In recent months, the Department of Justice has seized digital assets related to terrorist fundraising, repatriated millions to investment fraud victims, and won eligible offshore exchanges used to wash out illegal funds.
In March, prosecutors seized $201,000 with Hamas-linked code. In July, DOJ began repatriating $7.1 million to victims of the $97 million oil and gas fraud scheme.
Authorities also removed domains related to Russian-operated exchanges accused of dealing with illegal transactions of more than $800 million.
Eight co-conspirators pleaded guilty to an Axis digital case in which he includes two business partners, Jose Somarriba and Jingliang Su. Su, a Chinese citizen, helped convert and transfer stolen funds.
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