08/26/2025

United States uses civil asset forfeiture to recover $1.9M for victim of cryptocurrency investment scheme

United States Attorney's Office Eastern District of Virginia

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia, through civil asset forfeiture, has recovered and cleared title to $1,971,399.80 in investment fraud proceeds and property involved in money laundering. The United States is now in the process of returning that property to the victim.

According to court documents, scam perpetrators first sent an unsolicited text message to the victim about going to Central Park and then continued to engage in communications with the victim. The cryptocurrency investment scheme involved the perpetrators taking time to get to know the victim and earning their trust before encouraging the victim to “invest” in cryptocurrency using a spoofed investment website set up to mimic a legitimate cryptocurrency investment platform and funnel victim funds to the perpetrators. The site falsely represented to the victim that their “investments” were making sizeable gains. When the victim attempted to make withdrawals, however, the perpetrators coerced the victim to send more money, using tactics such as claiming the victim owed taxes on their “profits.” Ultimately, the perpetrators never let the victim withdraw any funds and simply stole the victim’s money.