A California Man Admits to Laundering Funds for $2.63 Billion Crypto Scam Ring

BlockBeats News, December 9th, according to The Block, the U.S. Department of Justice announced today that 22-year-old California man Evan Tangeman has pleaded guilty, admitting to laundering money for a $263 million cryptocurrency scam group, laundering over $3.5 million for the scam group. The Department of Justice stated that Tangeman is the ninth defendant to plead guilty in this investigation.

The organization carried out the fraud operation from October 2023 to May 2025. They stole approximately 4,100 bitcoins, valued at $263 million at the time, or around $371 million at current prices.

The group consisted of hackers, organizers, target identifiers, phone scammers, and burglars specializing in stealing hardware wallets, and they used stolen databases to select their targets. Hackers breached websites and servers to obtain cryptocurrency-related databases, while target identifiers used this data to filter out the most valuable victims.