California Man Sentenced in $37M Crypto Scam Amid Ongoing DOJ Crackdown

Shengsheng He, a California man who helped launder nearly $37 million stolen from U.S. investors through a global cryptocurrency scam, was sentenced Monday to 51 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $26.9 million in restitution, federal prosecutors said.

A resident of La Puente, California, He pleaded guilty in April to conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business.

According to the Justice Department, He co-owned Axis Digital Limited, a Bahamas-based company used to receive and transfer victim funds.

The scheme relied on unsolicited messages, phone calls, and dating app conversations to build trust with victims.

“The co-conspirators then promoted fraudulent digital asset investments to the victims,” the DOJ wrote. “Scammers would tell victims that their investments were appreciating in value when, in fact, the funds the victims sent to the scammers had been stolen.”

Once victims sent money, the funds were funneled into a single Axis Digital account at Deltec Bank in the Bahamas, then converted into the Tether (USDT) stablecoin and moved to wallets controlled by the scammers.

Authorities said the funds were routed through shell companies and overseas accounts to obscure their origin.

Prosecutors said the scam operated out of Cambodian “pig butchering” centers, where criminals use social engineering to defraud victims.

Pig butchering scams are typically high-volume digital fraud schemes, and in 2024, netted $9 billion according to Chainalysis. Victims believed they were investing in legitimate digital assets, but their money was being laundered across a network of accounts spanning multiple countries.

The Department of Justice did not respond to a request for comment by Decrypt.

He’s case is part of a broader crackdown on crypto-related fraud. In recent months, the Justice Department has seized digital assets linked to terrorist financing, returned millions to victims of investment fraud, and targeted offshore exchanges used to launder illicit funds.

In March, prosecutors seized $201,000 in crypto linked to Hamas. In July, the DOJ began returning $7.1 million to victims of a $97 million oil and gas fraud scheme.

Authorities have also taken down domains tied to Russian-run exchanges accused of processing more than $800 million in illicit transactions.

Eight co-conspirators have pleaded guilty in the Axis Digital case, including Jose Somarriba and Jingliang Su, two of He’s business partners. Su, a Chinese national, helped convert and transfer stolen funds.