A U.S. federal judge has sentenced a Chinese national to more than two years in prison for her role in laundering about $3.5 million from victims via investment scams as part of the so-called pig butchering fraud schemes.
Liu Li, 27, of Los Angeles, was sentenced to 28 months in prison on Aug. 15 after pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering on June 4, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California. She also used aliases such as “Qiunan Li” and “Xiaoying Zhao.”
Pig butchering scams involve fraudsters who build trusting relationships with victims before convincing them to invest in fake opportunities. The scammers then instruct victims to transfer money to fraudulent platforms that may appear and operate like legitimate ones. These platforms would show huge monetary gains, thus allowing scammers to encourage their victims to invest more. Eventually, victims are unable to take their money back, resulting in significant financial losses.
According to the plea agreement, Liu admitted that she received payment for laundering the illicit funds.
She used a fake passport under the alias “Xia Ran” and other documents to open a bank account for a sham company called Ocean X Trading Ltd. Inc. on Sept. 8, 2024, according to the court document. The defendant had access to the bank account until April 9. Several victims transferred their money to this account, including a victim who lost $104,000 by investing through the fraudulent cryptocurrency application Cikror.
In October 2024, Liu transferred $83,461 out of this bank account to the account belonging to a Hong Kong-based company called Alamo Tech Ltd., thus “concealing the source of the money and that the money came from fraud,” the court document states.
Liu and her co-conspirators also used fraudulent identification documents, including counterfeit passports and California driver’s licenses, to set up accounts at mail receiving facilities for the purpose of receiving bulk cash sent by victims.
For instance, on March 13, she used a fake Chinese passport with the name “Qiuan Li” and other documents for a company called Sunny South Trading Inc. to open an account at a Los Angeles-based shipping company called Prime Pack & Ship, according to the court document. On April 4 and April 7, a total of six packages containing bulk cash arrived at this location.
In the following days, Liu “picked up, opened, photographed the contents of the packages,” the court document states, before she sent the photographs to co-defendant Lyu Shauli and other co-conspirators.
Later, Liu and Lyu “consolidated the money and provided the money to other co-conspirators,” according to the court document.
According to the U.S. attorney’s office, Lyu, 28, an illegal alien from China, is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 4, after pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering on June 4.
Lyu allegedly had about 46 images of bulk cash on his cellphone, many of which were sent by Liu, according to the U.S. attorney’s office. Based on the images, law enforcement officials estimated that there was approximately $3.5 million in laundered money.
Liu was also “involved with someone transporting more than $200,000 of bulk currency” from Dallas to Los Angeles, according to court documents.
Law enforcement officials found $104,000 in cash at Liu’s residence, money that had not yet been sent to other co-conspirators, according to the U.S. attorney’s office. Authorities recovered 27 unclaimed packages from mail facilities linked to Liu and Lyu, containing approximately $285,000 in cash and $87,000 in gold bars.
Liu’s and Lyu’s lawyers didn’t respond to requests for comment.
In February, the U.S. attorney’s office announced that three individuals, including two Chinese nationals, had been arrested for charges related to setting up shell companies and laundering more than $13 million stolen from victims via pig butchering investment scams.
In November 2024, a dual citizen of China and St. Kitts and Nevis pleaded guilty in a Los Angeles federal court to his role in laundering more than $73 million in illicit proceeds generated through a pig butchering scheme involving cryptocurrency investment scams.
