Loading story…
U.S. prosecutors charged Zhuoying Chen and Haojie Zhang for allegedly running a New York-based money laundering network that processed proceeds from cyber-enabled investment fraud scams. An unsealed indictment alleges the pair managed more than a dozen people in Queens and Brooklyn between 2020 and 2022, using roughly 140 bank accounts linked to about 45 shell companies to move at least $43 million before transferring the funds to bank accounts in China.
Authorities said the underlying scams used social media and messaging platforms to build trust with victims, steer them into fake investment opportunities, and extract additional payments by showing fabricated profits, a pattern commonly associated with pig-butchering fraud. The charges come amid a broader U.S. crackdown on investment scams after the FBI reported that such schemes accounted for 49% of scam-related incidents in 2025 and caused $8.6 billion in reported losses.
Mallory correlates global threat intelligence with your attack surface — know if you’re exposed before adversaries strike.
2 events from the most recent confirmed update back to the earliest known activity.
U.S. prosecutors charged Zhuoying Chen and Haojie Zhang for allegedly operating a large-scale money laundering network linked to cyber-enabled investment fraud scams. The charges were described as part of a broader U.S. crackdown on pig-butchering and investment fraud.
According to the indictment, Zhuoying Chen and Haojie Zhang allegedly managed more than a dozen people in Queens and Brooklyn and used roughly 140 bank accounts tied to about 45 shell companies to move proceeds from cyber-enabled investment fraud scams. Prosecutors allege the network operated from 2020 to 2022 and transferred at least $43 million to bank accounts in China.
Vulnerabilities, threat actors, malware, products, organizations, and breaches Mallory has linked to this story.
2 references tracked. Mallory keeps watching after this page renders.
Map indicators from this story to your assets and identify affected systems in minutes.
Every observed campaign, victim, and pivot linked to actors named in this story.
Malware, exploits, and IOCs connected to the activity described here.
YARA, Sigma, and Snort rules deployed to your SIEM as soon as they’re published.
Get matching new stories delivered to your team as they break — not the next morning.
Ask questions about this story and take action on the answers.
Other stories Mallory is tracking that overlap on entities, sources, or topic labels.
US authorities sentenced Chinese national **Jingliang Su** to **46 months** in federal prison for laundering proceeds from a Cambodia-based “**pig butchering**” fraud operation that stole **~$36.9M** from **174** US victims, according to reporting on the Justice Department case. Court filings described a three-stage playbook—social engineering outreach via social media/dating/texts, steering victims to **fraudulent crypto investment platforms**, and then blocking withdrawals or demanding additional “fees”—with Su acting as a financial conduit; the court also ordered **~$26.9M** in restitution. Separate reporting detailed the operational reality behind similar “pig butchering” scam centers in the **Golden Triangle** region of **northern Laos**, including the **Boshang compound**, where leaked internal chats and a whistleblower account described industrialized fraud run like a sales organization with quotas and scripted victim engagement. The material also described **forced labor and debt bondage** conditions—confiscated passports, coercion, and violence for rule-breaking or escape attempts—highlighting that many scam operators are themselves trafficking victims compelled to conduct online romance/crypto-investment scams at scale.
Jun 29, 2026
U.S., Chinese, Thai, and Dubai law enforcement agencies disrupted a major cryptocurrency investment fraud network by raiding at least nine scam centers in Dubai and arresting 276 people across the Middle East and Southeast Asia. The investigation began after the FBI received complaints from American victims who lost millions of dollars in so-called pig-butchering schemes, and authorities said the operation used fake online personas, romance-style social engineering, and fraudulent crypto investment platforms to steal funds from victims worldwide. U.S. prosecutors in San Diego unsealed fraud and money laundering charges against alleged operators **Thet Min Nyi**, **Wiliang Awang**, **Andreas Chandra**, and **Lisa Mariam**, along with two fugitive co-conspirators. Investigators said the network operated through **Ko Thet Company**, **Sanduo Group**, and **Giant Company**, luring victims to bogus platforms including `CoinswiftTrading` and `SwiftLedger`, then moving stolen money through cryptocurrency accounts to obstruct recovery. The Justice Department said the action forms part of its broader Scam Center Strike Force campaign against cyber-enabled fraud that reportedly cost Americans **$16 billion** in the prior year.
Jun 29, 2026
The U.S. Department of Justice said a coordinated **"Disruption Week"** operation under its Scam Center Strike Force disrupted cyber-enabled fraud and cryptocurrency investment scam networks targeting Americans, including so-called **pig butchering** operations tied to compounds in Cambodia, Laos, and Burma near the Thailand border. Working with U.S. agencies, foreign law enforcement, major technology firms, and blockchain companies, the effort disrupted more than **1.4 million** social media and email accounts, interrupted malicious network activity, decommissioned scam infrastructure, and froze more than **$3.8 million** in cryptocurrency allegedly used to launder victim funds. Authorities said the networks are linked to transnational organized crime, including Chinese syndicates, and often rely on trafficked workers forced to run fraud schemes under threat of violence. The operation also led to the arrest of **seven** suspected scammers in Thailand, additional cases opened by the Royal Thai Police Anti Cyber Scam Center, and referrals for further U.S. investigation. DOJ said reported U.S. losses from cryptocurrency investment fraud continued to surge, rising from **$3.96 billion** in 2023 to **$5.8 billion** in 2024 and more than **$7.2 billion** in 2025.
Jun 29, 2026