The U.S. prosecutors filed a civil forfeiture lawsuit to recover 3.4 million USDT related to online investment fraud

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts, the office has filed a civil forfeiture lawsuit seeking to recover approximately 3.444 million USDT (worth about 3.444 million USD), which are suspected to be proceeds from an online investment fraud and money laundering scheme.

The case involves at least four victims, including two residents of Massachusetts, one resident of Utah, and one resident of South Carolina. The scammers established contact with the victims through seemingly misdirected messages sent via SMS or encrypted communication apps like WhatsApp and Telegram, and then lured the victims into investing in a so-called Ethereum investment opportunity backed by physical gold. Victims were instructed to purchase ETH and transfer it to an intermediary wallet controlled by the scammers, who then converted the ETH into USDT and transferred it to an unmanaged wallet to steal the funds.