The Department of Justice on Wednesday asked a court to let the agency seize $225 million from a so-called “pig butchering” operation—a term that describes scams where conmen build up the trust of a victim over time, and then trick them into handing over large amounts of money. The funds, which the crooks held in USDT stablecoins, were laundered through the crypto exchange OKX, according to Justice Department. This is the U.S.’s largest ever seizure of funds tied to crypto confidence schemes, said the agency.
While prosecutors didn’t name one perpetrator in the complaint, they did say the funds were linked to a “scam compound” in the Philippines. These locales usually house scores of workers who labor in shifts to lure victims into parting ways with their crypto, like Bitcoin, or cash. Many of these workers are employed by transnational criminal rings and forced to work against their will, according to the United Nations.
