Crypto scam suspect extradited to US in $36.9m case involving 174 victims

A Chinese national has been extradited from the Netherlands to Los Angeles over an alleged Cambodia-based crypto investment scam that targeted 174 identified Americans and moved more than $36.9 million through a Bahamas bank account.

The U.S. Department of Justice said on Oct. 23 that Zheng Zhao, 44, had appeared in federal court after his extradition. The Los Angeles U.S. Attorney’s Office said he was ordered detained and scheduled for arraignment on Nov. 30.

In its national announcement, the department said Zhao was charged in August 2025 with conspiracy to commit money laundering. Prosecutors said a conviction could carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison.

Zhao remains presumed innocent. The charge concerns his alleged participation in the movement of victim funds through an international network, according to the department’s account of court documents.

Dutch authorities worked with the Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs to secure his arrest and extradition, the announcement said. Neither release gives an arrest date or describes the circumstances in which authorities located him.

Crypto scam proceeds allegedly passed through banks and USDT

Prosecutors described a laundering route that began with accounts in the United States and ended with digital assets distributed to scam-center leaders in Cambodia.

In the department’s account, overseas participants approached Americans through unsolicited social media messages, phone calls, texts, and dating services. After building trust, they promoted purported digital asset investments and directed victims toward websites made to resemble legitimate cryptocurrency trading platforms.

The fake platforms displayed investment gains even though the money had been stolen, prosecutors alleged. Victims’ funds then moved through U.S. shell companies, foreign bank accounts and digital asset wallets.

More than $36.9 million passed from U.S. accounts controlled by participants into one account at Deltec Bank in the Bahamas, according to the announcement. Prosecutors alleged that Zhao and others arranged for the bank to convert the funds into Tether’s USDT and send the assets to a wallet controlled in Cambodia.

From that wallet, participants transferred USDT to leaders of scam centers across the region, the department said.

An earlier DOJ sentencing announcement identified the Bahamas account as belonging to Axis Digital Limited. In that September 2025 release, prosecutors named Sihanoukville, Cambodia, among the places where scam-center leaders received the funds.

Earlier defendants received prison terms and restitution orders

Eight co-conspirators have pleaded guilty, according to the latest announcement, including ShengSheng He and Jingliang Su.

He received a 51-month prison sentence in September 2025 after pleading guilty in April to conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business. The department identified him as a former co-owner of Axis Digital Limited and said the court ordered $26,867,242.44 in restitution.

Su was sentenced to 46 months on Jan. 27, as crypto.news previously reported in coverage of his prison sentence. The January DOJ announcement said he pleaded guilty in June 2025 to conspiracy to operate an illegal money transmitting business.

U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner imposed Su’s sentence, and the court ordered restitution of $26,867,242.44, according to the department. The Los Angeles office said Su had been in federal custody since December 2024.

The same January announcement listed a 36-month sentence for Jose Somarriba, another participant who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business.

Separate October operations targeted scam infrastructure

Other U.S. investigations this month have targeted the websites, servers and financial services used in alleged investment fraud.

On Oct. 14, Brooklyn prosecutors announced that their Virtual Currency Unit and the FBI had shut down 241 websites and seized 112 servers linked to an alleged Eastern European operation targeting Russian-speaking Americans.

The district attorney’s office said investigators had seized approximately $300,000 in stolen funds. No arrests were made during the operation, according to the announcement cited in that coverage.

Prosecutors said the operators first promoted fake investments, then approached victims again with false promises to recover their losses. Investigators targeted server infrastructure after finding that replacement websites appeared quickly when individual domains were taken offline.

A separate cross-border operation involved Coinbase, the Justice Department’s Scam Center Strike Force and the UK’s National Crime Agency.

Coinbase said its investigators joined an Oct. 6–9 event in London targeting West African scam networks. In its Oct. 13 account, the exchange said teams traced illicit financial activity, supported asset freezes and shared intelligence with law enforcement.

The company described combining blockchain transfers with evidence from messaging accounts, fake profiles and websites. Coinbase said the targeted schemes included fraudulent crypto investments, police impersonation and staged arrests over video calls.

In Zhao’s case, the Secret Service’s Global Investigative Operations Center is leading the investigation, according to the DOJ. Homeland Security Investigations, Customs and Border Protection, the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service and the U.S. Marshals Service provided assistance.

The department named Nisha Chandran and Alexander Gorin among the prosecutors handling the case.