A Cambodian “pig butchering” scam ring has been relieved of $15 billion in Bitcoin courtesy of the Department of Justice, according to a DOJ press release issued on Tuesday. The scam’s alleged ringleader, UK and Cambodian national Chen Zhi, has also been indicted for his role in the scam, though he remains at large. Prosecutors say that the scam ring relied on human trafficking and violence to maintain its operations, and that it stole billions of dollars from people all over the world since 2015.
In a 68-page indictment unsealed on Tuesday in a Brooklyn federal court, prosecutors accused Zhi and his associates of running a massive “phone farm” that operated 1,250 mobile phones, which controlled more than 76,000 social media accounts around the clock. The group reportedly also ran 10 “violent forced labor camps” across Cambodia, where human trafficking victims were coerced into stealing Bitcoin from unsuspecting victims. According to prosecutors, the people who worked in these camps were migrant workers who traveled to Cambodia in search of work but were instead trafficked and forced to work in these industrial scam compounds.
The indictment reads like something you might see on TV or in a Hollywood movie, and government officials said it’s the largest forfeiture action in the history of the Department of Justice.
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