A twin nationwide of China and St. Kitts and Nevis was sentenced to twenty years in US federal jail for orchestrating a worldwide cryptocurrency rip-off that stole greater than $73 million from victims, a lot of them American buyers.
Daren Li, 42, obtained the statutory most sentence within the Central District of California, together with three years of supervised launch, in response to a press release issued Tuesday by the US Division of Justice (DOJ).
Prosecutors mentioned Li and at the very least eight co-conspirators established spoofed domains and web sites resembling respectable buying and selling platforms to advertise fraudulent crypto investments after gaining victims’ belief, a scheme referred to as pig butchering or phishing scams.
Court docket filings present the conspirators usually initiated contact by means of social media platforms and courting apps, cultivating skilled or romantic relationships earlier than persuading victims to switch funds into accounts managed by the group.
“The Court docket’s sentence displays the gravity of Li’s conduct, which brought on devastating losses to victims all through our nation,” mentioned Assistant Legal professional Normal A. Tysen Duva, including that authorities would “work with our regulation enforcement companions all over the world to make sure that Li is returned to the US to serve his full sentence.”
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Li is the primary defendant to be sentenced. Eight different co-conspirators have pleaded responsible and await sentencing.
Li admitted that he and his co-conspirators tricked victims into transferring at the very least $73.6 million in funds to financial institution accounts related to the defendants, together with $59.8 million from US shell firms that laundered sufferer funds.
The sentencing comes greater than a 12 months after Li pleaded responsible to conspiring with others to launder funds obtained from victims by means of crypto scams and fraud, Cointelegraph reported in November 2024.
The investigation stays ongoing and is being led by the US Secret Service World Investigative Operations Middle, with help from Homeland Safety Investigations’ El Camino Actual Monetary Crimes Activity Drive and the US Marshals Service, amongst different businesses.
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Crypto scams see resurgence at first of 2026
Crypto scams and phishing incidents noticed an uptick in January, when scammers stole $370 million, the very best month-to-month determine in 11 months, in response to crypto safety firm CertiK.
Notably, $311 million of the entire determine was attributed to phishing scams, after a sufferer misplaced round $284 million as a result of a very damaging social engineering rip-off.
The $370 million marked the most important month-to-month loss since February 2025, when attackers netted about $1.5 billion in whole worth stolen, with the bulk because of the $1.4 billion Bybit trade hack.
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