A US federal court has sentenced the crypto scam organizer Daren Li to 20 years in prison after his involvement in a worldwide scheme that stole at least $73 million from victims. The defendant was sentenced in absentia.
Li escaped in December 2025 after tampering with his electronic monitoring device and is currently missing. Although he was absent from the proceedings, the court convicted him as a central figure in the massive cryptocurrency investment scam.
The crypto scam organizer is a dual citizen of China and St. Kitts and Nevis, according to the US Department of Justice, and was a central figure in coordinating a worldwide cryptocurrency fraud scheme. Prosecutors said the scheme preyed primarily on victims in the United States but also infected people in other countries.
According to a Justice Department press release, Li and his co-conspirators had developed an elaborate scheme that reached unsuspecting victims through phone, social media, and online dating platforms.
Fraud networks relied on crypto to move and conceal stolen funds
Prosecutors portrayed the sprawling scheme as a global fraud conspiracy that leveraged social media, dating platforms, and fake investment websites to build trust with victims before deceiving them into sending funds to accounts controlled by Li and his co‑conspirators. After clients deposited money, it was moved through a network of shell companies and international bank accounts, then converted into cryptocurrency to obscure its origin.
The websites were designed to look professional and displayed fake profits to make victims believe their investments were growing. In some cases, scammers often posed as technical support staff to trick victims into transferring money to “secure” their accounts, he said. This form of fraud is commonly referred to as “pig butchering,” a technique in which scammers gradually build the victim’s trust, then seize large sums of money. At least $73.6 million, according to court records, was funneled into accounts linked to the fraud network.
Experts note that cryptocurrency has enabled criminal organizations to cross borders and transfer stolen funds with ease. Scam operations like the one Li was involved in have expanded into large organized crime businesses, said Ari Redbord, global head of policy and government affairs at blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs.Â
Many of these activities are based in Southeast Asia, including Cambodia, where Li’s network reportedly operated. These scam networks work as large companies, with individuals who contact victims, create fake platforms, and launder stolen money, Redbord said. He added that what these groups have is scale and consistency. He explained that they generate predictable income by exploiting people around the world and rely on repeatable scam techniques.
Cryptocurrency enables criminals to move so much more effectively. By moving money quickly, splitting payments across numerous wallets, and combining them again later, criminals make detection and recovery much harder. Unlike conventional crimes that occur once, these are ongoing business operations that can run continuously and target thousands of scam victims simultaneously.
Authorities step up global crackdown as scam networks expand
Li’s sentencing is the first in this case, while another 8 of his collaborators have pleaded guilty and are awaiting their fate. It comes at a time when various authorities are raising the alarm over the proliferation of Southeast Asian scam centers.
These shifty activities mushroomed in the region following China’s outlawing of all types of online gambling in 2018. Several reports have linked their growth to Chinese tycoons who set base in Laos, Thailand, Myanmar, and Cambodia, after fleeing Beijing’s crackdown on cryptocurrencies and related activities, including gambling.
Though run by wealthy Chinese nationals, most workers in these centers are their young unemployed countrymen and other citizens from developing nations. Usually, the “employers” confiscate their passports, enslaving them in fraudulent online activity such as “pig butchering”, where bad actors build an often romantic relationship with a victim they intend to swindle. Resistors face torture that has at times turned fatal, as was the case with 22-year-old Korean student Park Min-ho in August 2025.
