The CFTC has filed fraud charges against a California man who allegedly swindled investors out of more than $1.3 million in a “pig butchering” crypto romance scam. LizKNapolitano reports
The action, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, alleges that Cunwen Zhu, a California businessman, tricked at least 29 customers out of more than $1.3 million allocated for digital asset commodity and forex trading through his company, Justby International Auctions, between April 2021 and March 2022.
Zhu’s partners cultivated romantic relationships with his alleged victims, to “fatten them up with falsehoods, before soliciting the customer to participate in a fraudulent financial opportunity,” the CFTC said in a statement. The romance scam, known as “Pig Butchering,” has become increasingly prevalent since the pandemic, with loneliness among individuals living under stay-at-home orders on the rise.
“As people sought to escape the isolation of the pandemic and form a connection to others online, fraudsters saw a new venue to prey on and to take advantage of the public,” said CFTC Director of Enforcement Ian McGinley. This isn’t the first time the CFTC has sounded the alarm on romance-related scams involving digital assets. The CFTC has issued several
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