The US Department of Justice (DoJ) has announced that they have seized six crypto accounts worth $112 million.
The U.S. Department of Justice announced on Monday, April 3, that they seized six crypto accounts involved in the scam. Making statements on the subject, Deputy Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite Jr said that the authorities will return the seized funds to the victims and will try to raise public awareness. In the continuation of his speech, Kenneth mentioned that these scams and frauds caused a great destruction on families and took away their lifelong savings.
Crypto Scams On The Rise
In the shared report, it was stated that the suspects carried out these fraud activities through social networks, friendship sites, phone calls, text messages and similar communication tools. According to the information in the report, the ages of the victims of the fraud are between 30 and 49 years old.
The Ministry of Justice said such scams are called Sha Zhu Pan, which means pork butchery, which is a Chinese phrase. As part of the fraud, the Department of Justice also seized six crypto accounts, authorizing the District of Arizona, the Central District of California, and the District of Idaho.
According to another report shared by the DoJ, scams increased by 183 percent between 2021 and 2022. However, the FBI has expanded its cooperation with international institutions and countries around the world to combat crypto-related crimes. The FBI reported in February last year that 50,000 Bitcoins tied to Silk Road were seized, worth $1.05 billion.
However, in February this year, the Norwegian National Authority for the Investigation and Prosecution of Economic and Environmental Crimes announced the seizure of approximately $5.84 million in cryptocurrencies, the largest cryptocurrency seizure in Norwegian history. The agency said it is working with FBI experts on tracking the cryptocurrency.
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