Federal agents are attempting to collect more than $6 million in bitcoin that they claim symbolizes the ill-gotten earnings of a Chinese couple’s “pig butchering” scam, which they left behind when they fled the United States one step ahead of the cops.
Prosecutors say Feng Chen and Tianqiong Xu abandoned the $6 million in four electronic wallets when they fled to China last year, days after the FBI investigated their home. They were charged in June 2024 by a federal grand jury in Vermont.
According to court filings filed on May 22, the married pair specifically targeted people of Chinese origin across the United States. Prosecutors accuse the pair of stealing at least $9.5 million from at least 120 victims while operating from their five-bedroom home in Frisco, Texas.
According to court filings, Chen and Xu misled others into believing they were investing in cryptocurrencies when, in reality, the couple forged apps, emails, and online records and placed the funds in their own crypto wallets. According to authorities, the victims received monthly updates indicating that their assets were increasing in value.
“Pig butchering” refers to schemes in which fraudsters gradually create a rapport with their victims before stealing their money. In other cases, like with other forms of fraud such as Ponzi schemes, scammers operate inside a specific community, such as a church or neighborhood. According to federal officials, Chen and Xu identified their targets in Chinese-language investment chat groups.
“Beginning at least as early as January 2021 and continuing through January 2024 (they) created a scheme to defraud victims of funds by encouraging the victims to invest in cryptocurrency using fraudulent cryptocurrency investment applications,” the prosecutor’s complaint said. “The scheme impacted over 100 victims across the United States and internationally … and resulted in the theft of millions of dollars from victims.”
One victim in Vermont liquidated their retirement account and sent $600,000 to the couple, according to court documents. Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Etherium are mainly unregulated and increasingly associated with scams. Last year, the FBI stated that Americans lost more than $5.6 billion in cryptocurrency fraud, owing in part to the ease with which it can be purchased and transferred electronically outside of traditional financial channels.
Court records show: The FBI searched the couple’s home in late 2023 but did not arrest them. Days later, the family obtained passports from the Chinese embassy in Houston and fled to China with their two children, according to court filings. Court filings show that the FBI and Secret Service have been tracking down their scam network since 2021.
According to the FBI, Chen is originally from Wuhan and graduated from universities in Wyoming and Louisiana with master’s degrees in petroleum engineering and geology. According to FBI officials, Chen utilized the same computer skills he learned in school to create fraudulent apps and chatbots to defraud his victims.
A federal grand jury in Vermont indicted the two people in absentia, and if they return to the United States, they will face charges of wire fraud and money laundering.