Source: United States Attorneys General 7
Five men have pleaded guilty for their roles in laundering more than $36.9 million from victims of an international digital asset investment scam conspiracy that was carried out from scam centers in Cambodia.
According to court documents, Joseph Wong, 33, of Alhambra, California; Yicheng Zhang, 39, of China; Jose Somarriba, 55, of Los Angeles; Shengsheng He, 39, of La Puente, California; and Jingliang Su, 44, of China and Turkey, were part of an international criminal network that induced U.S. victims, believing they were investing in digital assets, to transfer funds to accounts controlled by co-conspirators and that laundered victim money through U.S. shell companies, international bank accounts, and digital asset wallets.
As part of the conspiracy, co-conspirators residing overseas would contact U.S. victims directly through unsolicited social media interactions, telephone calls, text messages, and online dating services and gain the victims’ trust. The co-conspirators then promoted fraudulent digital asset investments to the victims. Scammers would tell victims that their investments were appreciating in value when, in fact, those funds were stolen and not invested at all. Instead, more than $36.9 million in victim funds were transferred from U.S. bank accounts controlled by the co-conspirators to a single account at Deltec Bank in the Bahamas, opened in the name of Axis Digital Limited. Somarriba, He, and Su directed Deltec Bank to convert victim funds to the stablecoin Tether (USDT) and to transfer the converted funds to a digital asset wallet controlled by individuals in Cambodia. From there, co-conspirators in Cambodia transferred the USDT to the leaders of scam centers throughout the region including in Sihanoukville, Cambodia.
Somarriba and He founded Axis Digital and opened the Deltec Bank account. Su joined Axis Digital as a director and participated in the digital asset conversions and transfers of victim funds.
Wong managed a network of money launderers in Los Angeles who registered shell companies, opened U.S. bank accounts, and wired victim funds to international bank accounts. Zhang opened and operated two U.S. bank accounts used to launder victim proceeds.
Zhang and Wong pleaded guilty to money laundering conspiracy. They each face a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. Zhang has been in custody since May 2024. He, Somarriba, and Su pleaded guilty to conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money services business. He, Somarriba, and Su each face a maximum penalty of five years in prison. Su has been in custody since November 2024. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
Eight co-conspirators have pleaded guilty so far, including Daren Li, a national of China and St. Kitts and Nevis and former resident of Cambodia and the United Arab Emirates who has been in U.S. custody since April 2024, and Lu Zhang, a Chinese national illegally in the United States who managed a network of U.S.-based money launderers, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering on Nov. 12, 2024 and May 13, 2024, respectively.
Matthew R. Galeotti, Head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Bilal A. Essayli for the Central District of California, and Special Agent in Charge William Mancino of the U.S. Secret Service (USSS) Criminal Investigative Division made the announcement.
USSS’s Global Investigative Operations Center is investigating the case. The Homeland Security Investigations’ El Camino Real Financial Crimes Task Force, Customs and Border Protection’s National Targeting Center, U.S. Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service, Dominican National Police, and U.S. Marshals Service provided valuable assistance.
Trial Attorneys Stefanie Schwartz of the Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section, Tamara Livshiz of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Maxwell Coll, Nisha Chandran, and Alexander Gorin for the Central District of California are prosecuting these cases.
If you or someone you know is a victim of a digital asset investment fraud, report it to IC3.gov.