United States Attorney's Office Files Civil Forfeiture Action to Recover $3.4 Million in Cryptocurrency Involved in an Online Investment Fraud Scheme

BOSTON - The United States Attorney's Office filed a civil forfeiture action to recover approximately 3,444,470 USDT (Tether), alleged to be proceeds of an online investment fraud scheme and money laundering scheme. The cryptocurrency currently has an estimated value of approximately $3,444,470.

In late 2024, the government began an investigation into a cryptocurrency investment fraud scheme that targeted at least four individuals, including two Massachusetts residents, a resident of Utah and a resident of South Carolina. In such fraud schemes, scammers obtain funds from victims using manipulative tactics. The scammer establishes a level of trust with a victim in online communications and then entices the victim into investing in a fraudulent cryptocurrency scheme. The victim's funds are stolen by the criminal, or criminals, ultimately causing the victim financial and emotional harm. Perpetrators behind these cryptocurrency investment schemes are often located overseas.

As alleged in court documents, unknown subjects initially communicated with the victims through what appeared to be misdirected messages via texts or through encrypted messaging applications such as WhatsApp and Telegram. After cultivating a relationship, the unknown subjects - who usually appear to be one individual, but may not be only one individual - then convinced the victims to invest in an exclusive Ethereum (ETH) investment opportunity that the unknown subjects claimed was backed by physical gold.

The unknown subjects directed the victims to purchase ETH and transfer the cryptocurrency to intermediary wallets controlled by the unknown subjects. The victims believed they were investing in a legitimate platform, when in fact the unknown subjects were instead sending victim funds to intermediary wallets, converting victim funds from ETH into USDT, transferring that USDT to unhosted wallets and stealing the funds.

The government seized 3,444,470 USDT involved in this scheme in February and March of 2025.

It is a violation of federal law to use wire communications as part of a scheme to defraud or to obtain money or property by means of false or fraudulent pretenses. It is also a violation of federal law to conduct a financial transaction knowing that the transaction is designed to conceal the nature, location, source, ownership, or control of criminal proceeds. A civil forfeiture action allows third parties to assert claims to property, which must be resolved before the property can be forfeited to the United States and returned to victims.

This is one of several civil forfeiture actions the U.S. Attorney's Office has filed seeking to forfeit cryptocurrency involved in fraud schemes targeting Massachusetts victims.

Members of the public who believe they are victims of a cybercrime - including cryptocurrency scams, romance scams, investment scams and business email compromise fraud scams - should contact [email protected].

United States Attorney Leah B. Foley and Ted E. Docks, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Field Office made the announcement today. Valuable assistance was provided by the Woburn Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Lyons of the Asset Recovery Unit is prosecuting the civil forfeiture action.

The details contained in the civil forfeiture complaint are allegations only.