A federal judge sentenced an American citizen who is a dual national of China and St. Kitts and Nevis, to 20 years of prison in the United States for his involvement in a crypto-scheme that defrauded Americans of $73,000,000.
Daren Li, 42, is still on the lam after he cut off his ankle-mounted electronic monitor device in December and fled.
A judge sentenced him absentee for his involvement in the fraud committed from Cambodia.
Li plead guilty to conspiracy to launder money obtained by victims via the crypto scheme in November 2024.
Scammers approached victims via unsolicited interactions on social media, phone calls and dating sites. After gaining the trust of the victim, scammers convinced them to transfer funds to websites and domains that resembled legitimate crypto trading platforms.
About $59.8 millions of the stolen $73.6 million were laundered via US shell companies. Li admitted that he directed his scammers, who were monitoring the flow of stolen money, to set up US accounts through shell companies for them to transfer and receive the illicit gains.
Li was the first to receive a sentence for receiving the funds directly, and eight other co-conspirators pleaded guilty.
A. Tysen Duva, Assistant Attorney General at the DOJ says the DOJ will “work with our law-enforcement partners throughout the world to make sure that Li is brought back to the United States and served his entire sentence.”
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Sources of Images include Pixabay Creative Commons & Midjourney
This article Fraudster who stole $73,000,000 from Americans through Crypto Scheme gets two decades in prison despite being on the run appeared first on The ICD.
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