Jingliang Su, a Chinese national, faces almost four years in prison for his role in crypto fraud that relied on befriending Americans on social media, then winning their trust in order to fleece them. He laundered about $37 million from 174 U.S. victims via scam centers in Cambodia, according to a statement released by the Department of Justice on Tuesday. In June, Su pleaded guilty to conspiracy to operate an illegal money transmitting business.
The sentencing follows a year in which mostly Chinese scammers stole a record $17 billion from regular people. Scam centers have become notorious in Southeast Asian countries like Myanmar, and recent kidnappings in the region have been linked to these fraud hubs.
“This case is emblematic of a broader trend we’re observing: highly organized scam conglomerates in Southeast Asia weaponizing technology and cryptocurrencies to defraud victims at scale across borders,” said Jacqueline Burns Koven, the head of cyber threat intelligence at Chainalysis, in a note to Fortune.
Su and his criminal network used creative techniques, and crypto, to lure victims and launder money. The fraudsters would contact American victims through social media, texts, or online dating platforms to get people’s trust. They would then create fake websites that looked like real crypto exchanges, where they convinced victims to send their money.
