A 33-year-old Chinese citizen who had been living in San Jose pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering after prosecutors say he helped run a scheme that posed as federal law enforcement officers to terrify victims into handing over their life savings in cash. Binghui Liu admitted taking roughly $597,100 from 24 victims across California and Nevada, money that was seized through a plot built on fear, fake badges, and false promises of safekeeping.
According to the Department of Justice, Liu and his co-conspirators began the scheme in February 2024, impersonating federal officers and employees to convince victims they faced criminal charges. The scammers warned targets that their bank accounts would be frozen unless they acted immediately, then instructed them to withdraw their savings in cash and surrender it for what they claimed was safekeeping, per the same federal account. Eric Grant, the U.S. Attorney overseeing the case, announced Liu's guilty plea, as reported by KRON4.
A Scheme Built on Impersonation and Fear
The scheme relied on fear and the appearance of official authority. Callers told victims they faced criminal charges and instructed them to hand over cash for safekeeping. Liu himself served as a money launderer for other conspirators, prosecutors say, collecting the cash handoffs that fed the operation.
Prosecutors say the scheme scammed victims out of more than $500,000 in life savings before it unraveled. The case finally cracked open on April 9, 2025, when FBI agents set up a sting operation using fake money, and Liu arrived at a victim's house expecting to collect what he believed was $20,000, per the same federal account. A federal grand jury indicted Liu later that month in connection with a broader conspiracy involving the scam that impersonated federal officers and employees, according to a separate Department of Justice announcement.
Sentencing Looms Amid Ongoing Impersonation Scams
Liu is scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Kirk Sherriff on January 4, 2027, and faces up to 20 years in prison along with a $500,000 fine, KRON4 reports.
The case comes amid ongoing government-impersonation schemes. The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center received nearly 61,000 complaints about law-enforcement or government impersonation schemes, with losses exceeding $1.6 billion, from January 2025 through July 2026, according to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center. The Federal Trade Commission reported that people lost $3.5 billion to imposter scams in 2025, per the Federal Trade Commission. The FBI has warned that scammers target older adults, according to the FBI.
Liu's case is not an isolated one. In Arizona, 24-year-old Ajay Kumar of Los Angeles pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering in a separate phantom-hacker scheme targeting elderly victims, with sentencing scheduled for October 8, 2026, federal prosecutors say. And in San Diego, two men pleaded guilty in a $1.49 million scam built around bulk gold purchases, underscoring how these cash- and asset-stripping schemes keep surfacing in courtrooms across the country.
