What happened
On 18 June 2025 the Department of Justice filed a civil forfeiture complaint seeking over $225 million in USDT laundered from international pig butchering investment scams, described at the time as its largest cryptocurrency seizure of that kind. The filing identified 434 victims, including 60 named victims who lost a combined $19.4 million. Among the traced funds were $3.3 million connected to Shan Hanes, the former Heartland Tri-State Bank chief executive whose $47.1 million embezzlement to pay scammers collapsed the Kansas bank in 2023.
How the deception worked
Victims were groomed online and induced to send tether to any of 93 deposit addresses controlled by the network. The proceeds were then split across up to 100 intermediary wallets to break the trail and to blend deposits from many victims, before consolidation into 22 primary exchange accounts and 122 further accounts linked by shared IP addresses and reused know-your-customer documents. The Heartland Tri-State case shows the depth of the psychological hold: a serving bank chief executive stole from his own bank, his church, an investment club and his daughter's college fund to keep feeding the scam, and received a 24-year sentence in August 2024.
AI involvement · Unknown
The forfeiture complaint focuses on the money laundering trail rather than the tooling used to create the scam personas.
The control that would have caught it· our reading, not a claim from the sources
The rule that a legitimate employer never requires an employee to deposit money to be paid is the whole control; payment providers should also flag consumer crypto purchases immediately preceding transfers to newly seen platforms.
Sources (3)
- DOJ Ties Kansas Bank Collapse to $225 Million 'Pig Butchering' SeizureCoinDesk·coindesk.comOpen ↗
- New FTC Data Show Skyrocketing Consumer Reports About Game-Like Online Job ScamsFederal Trade Commission·ftc.govOpen ↗
- FBI Releases Annual Internet Crime ReportFederal Bureau of Investigation·fbi.govOpen ↗
This entry summarises public reporting. It is not a legal finding, and details can change as investigations conclude. Found an error? Send a correction.