The US Department of Justice has seized a large sum of USDT tokens as part of its investigation into the so-called “Pig Butchering” cryptocurrency scam. The fraud allegedly involved the theft of over $225 million dollars worth of USDT tokens, the largest amount of stolen cryptocurrency in US history.
US authorities have frozen the assets of three individuals running the scam in June 2020, with over $9 million in USDT seized by the Southern District of New York. The remaining $216 million dollars was allegedly converted to cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Binance Coin, and are currently being held in a number of different exchanges, wallets, and accounts.
The US Department of Justice filed a civil forfeiture complaint against the three scammers, which was unsealed earlier this week. According to the statement, the three individuals allegedly “preyed on victims looking to invest in cryptocurrency by deceiving them into sending their money to an account in their control.” The scammers allegedly used false promises and fabricated success stories to entice their victims and, once the money had been deposited into their account, they pocketed the funds.
