A San Gabriel Valley man by the name of Shengsheng He, aged 39, has been sentenced to 51 months in federal prison for his role in a scam that saw the exploitation and manipulation of victims for over $36.9 million through international digital asset investment schemes, as detailed by the U.S. Attorney's Office, Central District of California. The scheme, as confessed by him on April 10, revolved around a conspiracy to operate an unlawful money transmitting business, which indiscriminately targeted U.S. victims and siphoned their funds into a vast network of deceit.
Functioning out of scam centers rooted deep within the reaches of Cambodia, the co-conspirators would initiate contact with unsuspecting Americans through the most innocuous of ways, including unsolicited messages across social media, and online dating services, they spun tales of profitable digital asset investments, but were, in truth, orchestrating a grand act of theft where victim's funds were redirected to an account in the Deltec Bank in the Bahamas in one clever move, under the guise of a company named Axis Digital Limited.
A sobering sentiment was echoed by Acting U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli, who starkly reminded the public to maintain a vigilant stance against strangers bearing lucrative investment opportunities, declaring "The public should always remember to be vigilant and wary of strangers marketing promising investment opportunities. Your retirement fund or children’s college money may depend on it," in a statement made by the U.S. Attorney's Office, Central District of California.
Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew R. Galeotti lamented the proliferation of foreign scam centers and affirmed the Criminal Division's dedication to pursuing justice for American investors, noting, "The defendant was part of a group of co-conspirators that preyed on American investors by promising them high returns on supposed digital asset investments when, in fact, they stole nearly $37 million from U.S. victims using Cambodian scam centers," as defendants such as Daren Li, a national of China and St. Kitts and Nevis and Lu Zhang, a Chinese national, entered guilty pleas in the wake of their involvement within this intricate web of deceit, and the dedicated efforts of the Secret Service’s Global Investigative Operations Center underpinned the investigation, as per the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California.
The case is being investigated by the United States Secret Service’s Global Investigative Operations Center, with assistance from Homeland Security Investigations’ El Camino Real Financial Crimes Task Force, Customs and Border Protection’s National Targeting Center, the U.S. Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service, the Dominican National Police, and the U.S. Marshals Service. Prosecution was handled by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Maxwell Coll and Alexander Gorin of the Terrorism and Export Crimes Section, Nisha Chandran of the Major Frauds Section, Trial Attorney Stefanie Schwartz of the Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section (CCIPS), and Tamara Livshiz of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section.
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