New York Duo Charged With Laundering $43 Million From 'Pig Butchering' Investment Scams

Key points

• U.S. prosecutors on Thursday charged Zhuoying Chen, 27, and Haojie Zhang, 38, with laundering at least $43 million from online investment scams.
• The pair allegedly ran a network of more than a dozen people across Queens and Brooklyn between 2020 and 2022.
• The group used roughly 140 bank accounts held under about 45 shell companies to move stolen cash to China, according to the unsealed indictment.
• If convicted of conspiracy to commit money laundering, each defendant faces up to 20 years in prison.
• The FBI's 2025 Internet Crime Report says investment fraud caused $8.6 billion in reported U.S. losses last year, up from $6.5 billion the year before.

The Justice Department has charged two New York residents with running a laundering operation that funneled tens of millions of dollars stolen from Americans in online investment scams.

Zhuoying Chen, 27, and Haojie Zhang, 38, are accused of managing more than a dozen money movers across Queens and Brooklyn between 2020 and 2022. The unsealed indictment, first reported by BleepingComputer, says they pushed at least $43 million through the banking system on behalf of overseas scammers.

The mechanics were, on paper, boring. Set up companies that do not really exist. Open bank accounts in those companies' names. Receive victim wire transfers. Send the money on to China before anyone catches up.

Prosecutors say the network used about 45 shell companies, meaning businesses that exist only on paper to disguise who really owns the money, and roughly 140 bank accounts to do the moving.

How did the scams that fed this network actually work?

They are the slow, patient kind, often called "pig butchering" because criminals fatten up a victim's trust before the slaughter.

It usually starts on social media or a messaging app. A stranger strikes up a friendly conversation, sometimes flirtatious, sometimes just chatty. Over weeks they mention an investment platform they are doing well on, usually crypto.

The victim is walked through opening an account on a slick-looking website. Early "profits" show up on the dashboard. That dashboard is fake. Every number on it is controlled by the scammers.

Encouraged by the fake gains, victims send more. Then more. When they try to withdraw, they are told to pay "taxes" or "fees" first. Eventually the site goes dark and the money is gone.

This is where Chen and Zhang come in, according to prosecutors. Their alleged job was to catch the incoming victim funds in U.S. shell-company accounts and get them out of the country quickly.

"For nearly two years, these two Chinese nationals allegedly ran a sophisticated, illicit network that laundered funds stolen from unsuspecting victims' life savings," said John A. Condon, Executive Associate Director of Homeland Security Investigations.

Should ordinary people be worried?

Yes, because the numbers keep climbing. The FBI's 2025 Internet Crime Report says investment fraud made up 49% of all scam complaints last year, with reported losses of $8.6 billion. That is up from $6.5 billion in 2024.

This case is not an outlier. In February, 42-year-old Daren Li was sentenced in absentia to 20 years over a $73 million crypto investment scheme. In December, the Justice Department charged four more people in a separate pig-butchering case tied to more than $80 million in losses.

In November, U.S. authorities set up a Scam Center Strike Force after seizing $15 billion tied to Prince Group, a large criminal organisation that targeted Americans with crypto scams. European police have dismantled two more investment fraud rings this year with combined losses over €150 million.

A few plain rules help. If a stranger who slid into your DMs is now coaching you on crypto trades, they are not your friend. If a platform shows profits but blocks withdrawals without new "fees", the money is already gone. And if a deal is only good if you act today, it is not a deal.

Chen and Zhang each face up to 20 years if convicted. The victims, in most of these cases, do not get their money back.