A U.S. court has sentenced Jingliang Su, a 45-year-old Chinese national, to 46 months in federal prison for laundering more than $36.9 million from a sophisticated cryptocurrency investment scam that targeted 174 American victims. U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner also ordered Su to pay $26.8 million in restitution. Su pleaded guilty in June 2025 to conspiracy to operate an illegal money transmitting business and has been in federal custody since December 2024.
The scam, operated from Cambodia, used social media, dating apps, phone calls, and text messages to contact victims. Co-conspirators spent time building trust before pitching fake crypto investment opportunities. They created websites that mimicked legitimate trading platforms, where victims deposited funds and were shown fake profits. In reality, the money was immediately stolen.
The laundering operation moved victim funds through U.S. shell companies to an account at Deltec Bank in the Bahamas. The funds were then converted to the stablecoin Tether (USDT) and sent to digital wallets controlled by scam center operators in Cambodia.
Su was not acting alone. Eight co-conspirators have pleaded guilty so far. ShengSheng He received a 51-month prison sentence, and Jose Somarriba was sentenced to 36 months, both on the same conspiracy charge. "This defendant and his co-conspirators scammed 174 Americans out of their hard-earned money," said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva. "In the digital age, criminals have found new ways to weaponize the internet for fraud."
This case is part of a broader Department of Justice crackdown on international crypto fraud networks. Since 2020, the DOJ's Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section has convicted over 180 cybercriminals and secured court orders for the return of more than $350 million to victims. The investigation received assistance from the U.S. Secret Service, Homeland Security Investigations, and the Dominican National Police.
