The US authorities appealed to the court to confiscate Tether (USDT) in the amount of almost 200 thousand dollars, which are stored on the Binance crypto exchange. This lawsuit is related to a fraud case, as a result of which the man lost more than a million dollars.
This is stated in the materials of the court, which were published on the Courtlistener website on Friday, June 7.
What is known about fraud
A man turned to law enforcement officers, who said that in the period from January 2021 to December 2022, he gave about $ 1.1 million to scammers. On the dating platform Facebook Dating, the victim met a woman Eva Marcus. She told him that she was an engineer and the owner of a diamond mine, but now she needed funds because her company had suffered losses, and she had to get a lawyer and return to America. The victim believed in this legend and transferred more than 400 thousand dollars to the fraudster.
After that, the man on the same site met another woman who called herself Lisa Warren and said that she invests in cryptocurrency.
The fraudster persuaded her victim to send her 55 thousand dollars for investment. Also, the man sold his own house, and the money received from the sale was given to the malefactor to invest these funds in cryptocurrency. In general, the man "gave" the fraudster about 600 thousand dollars in cryptocurrency. Subsequently, he brought inquiries, realized that he was deceived, but was able to return only 15 thousand dollars, so he went to the police.
The address of the Warren wallet was used to track illegally received funds. As for the money that the first fraudster stole, most of it was in cash, but the last amount remained unknown. Tracking the movement of funds led the FBI to the Izuchukwu account of Nepa Okolo on Binance. In November 2023, Binance discovered that the owner of this account converted the received bitcoins into 196,721 USDT. The exchange froze the funds and reported it to the FBI, and the agency confiscated them.
This is stated in the materials of the court, which were published on the Courtlistener website on Friday, June 7.
What is known about fraud
A man turned to law enforcement officers, who said that in the period from January 2021 to December 2022, he gave about $ 1.1 million to scammers. On the dating platform Facebook Dating, the victim met a woman Eva Marcus. She told him that she was an engineer and the owner of a diamond mine, but now she needed funds because her company had suffered losses, and she had to get a lawyer and return to America. The victim believed in this legend and transferred more than 400 thousand dollars to the fraudster.
After that, the man on the same site met another woman who called herself Lisa Warren and said that she invests in cryptocurrency.
The fraudster persuaded her victim to send her 55 thousand dollars for investment. Also, the man sold his own house, and the money received from the sale was given to the malefactor to invest these funds in cryptocurrency. In general, the man "gave" the fraudster about 600 thousand dollars in cryptocurrency. Subsequently, he brought inquiries, realized that he was deceived, but was able to return only 15 thousand dollars, so he went to the police.
The address of the Warren wallet was used to track illegally received funds. As for the money that the first fraudster stole, most of it was in cash, but the last amount remained unknown. Tracking the movement of funds led the FBI to the Izuchukwu account of Nepa Okolo on Binance. In November 2023, Binance discovered that the owner of this account converted the received bitcoins into 196,721 USDT. The exchange froze the funds and reported it to the FBI, and the agency confiscated them.
