US Seeks Forfeiture of $14.2B Bitcoin Linked to Pig-Butchering Kingpin Chen Zhi

U.S. authorities seizes document $14B Bitcoin linked to Chen Zhi’s huge human-trafficking and cryptocurrency fraud community.

The U.S. Division of Justice (DOJ) has filed a civil forfeiture grievance to take management of about 127,000 BTC, value round $14.2 billion.

The Bitcoin fortune is tied to LuBian and Cambodia-based businessman Chen Zhi, who’s the chairman of Prince Group.

Report $14B Bitcoin Seizure

Arkham shared through X that Zhi ran large-scale human-trafficking and pig-butchering schemes throughout Asia. Any such exploit entails victims being tricked into faux on-line relationships after which satisfied to put money into phony cryptocurrency platforms. As soon as they deposit cash, the scammers take their property and disappear.

Prince Group’s funding scams have led to billions of {dollars} in losses and struggling for victims worldwide, together with in New York. Zhi stays at giant, going through prices of wire fraud and cash laundering conspiracy. Prosecutors allege that the illicit proceeds had been used to buy luxurious yachts, non-public jets, paintings, and trip properties.

Alternatively, LuBian was one of many greatest Chinese language mining swimming pools with amenities in China and Iran. The platform had been topic to the most important crypto heist ever in 2020, with hackers looting Bitcoin value round $3.5 billion on the time.

In keeping with the DOJ’s submitting, LuBian was allegedly funded and operated utilizing income from prison actions reminiscent of scams, human trafficking, and pig butchering schemes.

The blockchain analytics platform has confirmed that the stolen digital property are actually within the custody of the U.S. authorities, marking one of many greatest additions to the U.S. crypto reserves since their establishment in March beneath President Donald Trump’s govt order.

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DOJ Submitting Sparks Questions Over Forfeited Bitcoin

The DOJ’s submitting doesn’t make clear how the Bitcoin got here into U.S. custody, leaving open the query of whether or not the keys had been hacked, voluntarily surrendered, or if the 2020 incident was really a secret U.S. operation.

In the meantime, on-chain investigator ZachXBT shared that pockets addresses listed within the authorities’s $14 billion seizure had been flagged in a Milky Unhappy report about two years in the past for having uncovered non-public keys. He identified that it now claims to have management of these wallets, suggesting that both a 3rd get together hacked them on behalf of the U.S. or the authorities did it themselves.

Moreover, the doc particulars that the cryptocurrency was moved once more between June and July 2024. It additionally mentions an incident involving a finance employees member who reportedly fled with funds and tried to cover, an occasion which may be linked to the Bitcoin transfers throughout that point.