The U.S. Department of Justice is cracking down on yet another cryptocurrency fraud ploy.

The losses amount to tens of millions, and it’s expected that more will be identified.

An Elaborate Scheme

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Western District of Washington filed a civil action on Tuesday, demanding the forfeiture of cryptocurrency assets valued at roughly $7.1 million. The funds were seized during an investigation into a scheme involving fraudulent investment in oil and gas, which Acting U.S. Attorney Teal Luthy Miller announced.

The assets are only a fraction of the $97 million obtained by coconspirators between June 2022 and July 2024, which Homeland Security Investigations seized in December last year.

“The co-schemers in this fraud moved their ill-gotten gain through various cryptocurrency accounts to try to launder the money stolen from victims,” said Attorney Miller.

“Federal investigators and prosecutors in our office moved as quickly as possible to trace and seize the cryptocurrency so that some of the losses can be returned to victims.”

According to the filing and other case records, the plot was presented as escrow accounts for purchasing oil tank storage in either Rotterdam, the Netherlands, or Houston, which spanned from at least August 2022 through August 2024.

The victims were convinced to send money to these accounts, where the conspirators indicated that investors could make significant profits by renting out the oil tank storage to others. At least seven separate entities have been marked where funds were sent.

However, the good news ended there, as once the funds were sent, no further information on the investment was provided, and the co-schemers just stopped replying.

How The Funds Were Moved

A resident from Newcastle, Washington, Geoffrey K. Auyeung, 47, was indicted as a coconspirator in the U.S in August 2024, being charged with receiving the majority of the funds generated by the deceptive plan.

The money was quickly shuffled to one or more of at least 81 accounts at various institutions, either offshore or not, or to one of the at least 19 different crypto accounts.

The assets were then funneled into various cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, USDT, USDC, and Ethereum, the majority of which was further transferred to accounts at the Binance exchange.

The forfeiture filing further states that the crypto accounts, which were seized, were linked to individuals in Russia and Nigeria, where some of the victims’ funds, used to purchase digital assets, were also sent to exchanges in those countries.

At least one of the money markets in Russia or Nigeria is alleged to have facilitated money laundering for transnational criminal organizations, including terrorist organizations and other parties that have been known to violate international trade sanctions.

At the time of Auyeung’s arrest, $2.3 million was seized from his bank accounts, which is in addition to the $7.1 million in crypto the government is seeking to forfeit.

If the court approves the forfeiture, the funds will be distributed accordingly to the victims. Investigators, so far, have identified dozens of such cases, with the total amount of exploits reaching approximately $17.9 million, which is expected to grow as more casualties are identified.