U.S. prosecutors recover nearly $1.7 million in cryptocurrency investment scam funds through “civil asset forfeiture proceedings”

ChainCatcher news: According to disclosures on the website of the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia has successfully recovered 420,740.422314 USDT and 1,249,996.15 BUSD, with a total value of nearly $1.7 million, through civil asset forfeiture proceedings. These funds originated from cryptocurrency investment scam proceeds and money laundering activities and are currently being returned to the victims. According to court documents, the scammers contacted victims via SMS and social media, posing as accidental acquaintances before luring them onto encrypted chat applications. The scammers then gained the victims’ trust and encouraged them to “invest” cryptocurrency on fraudulent investment websites. These websites mimicked legitimate crypto investment platforms but actually transferred the victims’ funds to the scammers.