Man charged in $16 million crypto 'massive pig butchering’ scam

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Missouri charged a man on Friday for his role in defrauding someone of millions of dollars' worth of crypto in a "massive pig butchering" scam.

The attorney's office said in a statement that Trung Nguyen Van, 37, from Vietnam, was charged with money laundering for his role. Pig butchering scams, also known as romance scams, build relationships with users and then lure them into fraudulent investments.

"Pig butchering schemes are an increasingly prevalent and sophisticated form of fraud that have caused billions of dollars in losses to victims around the world," said R. Matthew Price, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, in a statement.

Prosecutors said that during the summer of 2024, the victim transferred about $16 million worth of crypto because they thought they were investing in a crypto platform called "Triangle." Right after receiving the funds, Van allegedly transferred them into private crypto wallets.

Other victims may have been involved as well. Other U.S. based victims have reported millions of dollars in losses and attributed those to wallets that sent funds to Van's crypto wallet, prosecutors said.

"Each of the victims were instructed to transfer cryptocurrency to different websites, but each victim reported a similar story," the attorney's office said. "In each of these schemes, victims were guided by an individual they met online to invest cryptocurrency in a specified 'website' with a promise of high financial returns."