The US Department of Justice has charged four individuals with cryptocurrency investment fraud and money laundering, causing losses of over $80 million.

BlockBeats reported on December 15th that Lu Zhang, Justin Walker, Joseph Wong, and Hailong Zhu have been charged with cryptocurrency investment fraud and money laundering by the US Department of Justice. According to court documents, the individuals are accused of conspiring to establish shell companies and bank accounts to launder funds from cryptocurrency investment fraud and other fraudulent schemes. They transferred funds to domestic and international financial institutions, and the overall fraud scheme of the related fraud group involved at least 284 transactions, resulting in losses of over $80 million for victims. Over $20 million of victim funds were directly deposited into bank accounts related to the defendants. The US Secret Service's Global Investigative Operations Center is investigating the case. According to court documents, the "pig-killing" fraud scheme involves scammers seeking victims through dating services, social media, or unsolicited messages or phone calls. Scammers establish relationships with victims and slowly gain their trust, eventually introducing the idea of using cryptocurrency for business investment.