- The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has reportedly seized $9 million in stablecoin Tether (USDT).
- These funds have been linked to a crypto romance and trust scam called “pig butchering.”
- On Monday, Tether announced it had frozen $255 million linked to a human trafficking scheme.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has announced the seizure of $9 million worth of stablecoin Tether (USDT), the government agency said in a press release on Tuesday.
Other fraud-related Tether news follows yesterday’s announcement that the USDT issuer had frozen millions of its own crypto tokens held in wallets linked to traffickers.
DOJ confiscated $9 million in USDT from Tether.
According to the DOJ, the funds were seized from wallets linked to an organization that allegedly exploited more than 70 victims through a romance and cryptocurrency scam called ‘Pig Slaughter.’
“These scammers prey on regular investors by creating websites that tell victims that their investments are trying to make money. The truth is that these international criminal actors simply steal cryptocurrency and leave their victims with nothing.,” Nicole M. Argentieri, Ag. The Attorney General of the Ministry of Justice’s Criminal Division said:
The cryptocurrency seizure followed extensive investigation and cooperation between the Department of Justice (DOJ) and U.S. Secret Service agents and analysts, the Justice Department noted. As reported, the perpetrators allegedly laundered this money through multiple exchanges and addresses using a technique called ‘chain hopping’.
The investigation into the fraud was conducted by the United States Secret Service of the San Francisco Field Office.
Today’s announcement from the DOJ comes one day after Tether announced that it had frozen over $255 million in USDT. The funds were linked to a human trafficking scheme in Southeast Asia.
According to the cryptocurrency company, the USDT freeze was a joint effort between Tether and cryptocurrency exchange OKX.