Federal agents hauled in two New Yorkers on Wednesday, accusing them of helping turn Brooklyn and Queens into a key laundromat for millions siphoned from long‑con "pig‑butchering" investment scams and funneled into bank accounts in China. The arrests, unsealed in Brooklyn federal court, center on an alleged laundering hub that prosecutors say quietly operated out of the two boroughs for years.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of New York, the indictment charges 27‑year‑old Zhuoying Chen (also known as “Jolene”) of Brooklyn and 38‑year‑old Haojie Zhang (also known as “Kevin”) of Queens. Prosecutors say that between 2020 and 2022, Chen and Zhang helped run a network that used roughly 45 shell companies and about 140 company bank accounts in the district to clean at least $43 million in proceeds from pig‑butchering scams, allegedly teaming up with China‑based co‑conspirators to move the money overseas.
How Prosecutors Say The Network Worked
Federal investigators describe pig‑butchering schemes as slow‑burn cons that start on messaging apps or social platforms, where scammers groom victims over time before nudging them into fake trading or crypto platforms and draining their funds. A FinCEN advisory and financial trend analysis has warned that Chinese money‑laundering networks often sit in the middle of these operations, rapidly shuttling stolen cash through layers of domestic accounts and cross‑border wire transfers to make it harder for banks, victims and investigators to trace or recover the money.
Names, Local Ties And Alleged Scale
The court filing, listed as E.D.N.Y. Docket No. 26‑CR‑205 (KAM), outlines what prosecutors describe as a crew of more than a dozen operatives based in Queens and Brooklyn who allegedly opened bank accounts in the names of shell companies to receive the scam proceeds. According to the indictment, deposits flowed into those accounts and were then routed on to bank accounts in China. The charging document is an allegation, not a finding of guilt, and if convicted, each defendant could face statutory penalties that include potentially lengthy prison terms.
Part Of A Wider Federal Crackdown
Prosecutors and their federal partners say this case is one piece of a broader push against transnational scam operations that use U.S. bank accounts as temporary parking spots before money is sent overseas. In 2025, the Justice Department unsealed a high‑profile indictment tied to the Prince Group that alleged large‑scale scam compounds and massive laundering operations, underscoring, officials say, how these networks can sprawl across continents and demand coordinated law‑enforcement crackdowns.
What Happens Next
Chen and Zhang were arrested and are expected to be arraigned in federal court in Brooklyn. For now, the charges remain allegations, and both defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. The U.S. Attorney’s Office says the investigation drew on work from the FBI, IRS‑Criminal Investigation and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, with the Office’s Business and Securities Fraud Section and the Department of Justice’s money‑laundering teams leading the prosecution.
