Federal prosecutors in the Central District of California filed an unsealed indictment alleging that two Chinese nationals are the leaders of a scheme to launder proceeds from crypto investment fraud schemes.
Daren Li, holding dual citizenship in China and St. Kitts and Nevis, and Yicheng Zhang, a Chinese investor living in Temple City, California, face charges for running a global organization that laundered a minimum of $73 million.
Daren Li, 41, was detained on April 12, and arrived at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, whilst Yicheng Zhang, 39, was apprehended in Los Angeles. Among the charges are conspiracy to launder money and six- additional counts of international money laundering. With 5 counts, each defendant, who has accepted the charges, can receive a maximum sentence of 100 years per count.
Li and Zhang reportedly arranged a sophisticated endeavor that allowed them to charge the accounts held by shell firms in the U.S. and make victims transfer millions of dollars to them. These were then channeled through the networks of countries and crypto-currencies involved in these operations, with at least 341 million dollars as the number of people affected.
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