A federal judge in California has sentenced a dual Chinese and St. Kitts and Nevis national in absentia to 20 years in prison for his role in a $73 million international crypto scam.
Daren Li, who is a fugitive after having an electronic ankle monitoring device removed in December, was also sentenced to three years of supervised release for his role in an international cryptocurrency investment conspiracy carried out from fraud centers in Cambodia, according to a court statement Monday.
Cambodia has become a hub for crypto “pig butchery” scams, generating more than $30 million per day via forced labor complexes, according to a report from TRM Labs. A separate TRM report revealed how more than $96 billion in cryptocurrencies have been funneled to Cambodia-linked companies since 2021, widely used for money laundering and fraud.
“As part of an international cryptocurrency investment scam, Daren Li and his co-conspirators laundered more than $73 million stolen from U.S. victims,” Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division said in the release.
Duva said the court’s criminal division was working with law enforcement around the world to find, detain and return Li to the United States to serve his full sentence.
Li pleaded guilty on November 12, 2024, in the Central District of California, to conspiring with others to launder funds obtained from victims through crypto scams and related frauds. As part of his plea deal, Li said he and his friends would contact victims directly through unsolicited social media interactions, phone calls and messages, and online dating services. Their tactics included gaining victims’ trust by establishing professional or romantic relationships with them, then tricking them into using fake platforms to appear to be investing in crypto.
In other cases, the group posed as technical support staff and tricked victims into sending funds via bank transfer or cryptocurrency trading platforms to supposedly remedy a nonexistent virus or other fake computer problem.
Social engineering scams, such as fake investment offers and identity theft tactics, were the biggest threat to crypto users, accounting for billions of dollars in losses and accounting for nearly 41% of all crypto security incidents in 2025.
