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- The court delivers a 46-month prison sentence.
- The scam network laundered over 36.9 million dollars through crypto rails.
- Investigators confirmed 174 victims across the United States.
According to the press release, a federal court in California sentenced Jingliang Su, a 45-year-old Chinese national, to 46 months in prison. The judge also ordered restitution of 26,867,242 dollars. Prosecutors tied Su to a large-scale crypto and digital asset fraud operation with global reach.
Su admitted to this role in June 2025. He pleaded guilty to the charge of conspiring to operate an illegal money transmitting business. He has been under federal custody since December 2024. This was a display of how organized groups use new financial tools for their own gain.
This was also a display of how quickly stolen funds move from one place to another. Su was said to be helping manage the flow of the victims’ funds after the initial transfer was made. This was done to support scam centers based in Cambodia. This was seen as a deliberate action, and the sentence was a display of the pressure being put on these facilitators of financial crimes, which often go unnoticed.
Fake Crypto Investments Targeted US Victims
The scam started when overseas operators contacted victims unsolicited. They contacted victims via social media, telephone calls, text messages, and online dating websites. They gained victims’ trust gradually. They then proceeded to advertise a scam involving digital assets.
The victims received links to websites that looked identical to authentic cryptocurrency trading websites. The scam websites showed victims false profits. The victims thought their investments were increasing. They invested more due to the increasing profits. However, the scammers stole the investments at once. More than 36.9 million dollars changed hands from bank accounts in the United States to one account in Deltec Bank in the Bahamas.
The scammers then changed the stolen money to USDT. They sent the digital assets to a wallet in Cambodia. They then sent the stolen funds to scam center leaders. There were 174 victims from inside the United States.
US Courts Sentence Key Figures in Cyber Fraud Scheme
So far, eight conspirators have pleaded guilty. Jose Somarriba was sentenced to 51 months, and ShengSheng He was sentenced to 36 months in prison. The United States Secret Service was in charge of the case with the help of the Global Investigative Operations Center.
Homeland Security Investigations, Customs and Border Protection, the State Department, foreign law enforcement, and the U.S. Marshals Service assisted with the case. The prosecutors came from the fraud, cybercrime, and national security divisions. The authorities are still fighting to dismantle scam centers around the world.
They confiscate cryptocurrencies associated with crime. They also disrupt the way scammers launder money, especially when it crosses borders. Global cooperation has been and will always be key to these efforts. In 2020, cybercrime prosecutors achieved convictions for over 180 criminals and recovered over 350 million dollars for victims.
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