SDNY Charges Chinese National With Laundering $14 Million in Pig-Butchering Crypto Proceeds

NEW YORK — The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York charged a Chinese national with conspiracy to commit money laundering on June 5, 2026, for his role in processing at least $14 million in cryptocurrency derived from pig-butchering fraud schemes, according to remarks delivered by SDNY Criminal Division Chief Amanda Houle at an NYPD press conference.

The defendant and co-conspirators maintained a network of bank accounts and cryptocurrency wallets in the New York metropolitan area that received fraud proceeds, converted them into U.S. dollars or other assets, and layered transactions to obscure their origin.

The operation handled funds traceable to schemes that typically impersonate romantic partners or investment advisers to convince victims to transfer cryptocurrency, which is then stolen.

The charges target the financial layer that allows pig-butchering operations — largely based in Southeast Asia — to monetize their gains. The $14 million figure represents only the volume laundered through the New York accounts controlled by this network; total losses from the underlying fraud schemes run significantly higher.

The indictment converts prior investigative findings into formal criminal charges in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. It cites money-laundering conspiracy statutes that carry maximum penalties of 20 years in prison. Sentencing will follow any conviction.

Downstream, the case requires cryptocurrency exchanges and banks that interacted with the identified wallets to preserve records and respond to subpoenas. It also triggers mandatory asset-forfeiture proceedings against seized cryptocurrency and fiat balances.

Federal agencies must now trace additional upstream wallets linked to the same fraud rings, while Southeast Asian law-enforcement partners gain a U.S. conviction they can use for mutual legal assistance requests.

This prosecution is the latest in a series of SDNY cases that treat cryptocurrency money-laundering networks as distinct enforcement targets separate from the fraud groups themselves. The Department of Justice has previously highlighted pig-butchering schemes as a priority because the scams combine social engineering with rapid cross-border movement of digital assets that traditional banking controls have struggled to interrupt.