U.S. prosecutors charged two people in New York with helping launder $43 million stolen from victims in online investment fraud scams. The indictment says Zhuoying Chen and Haojie Zhang ran a Queens- and Brooklyn-based network from 2020 to 2022 that used about 140 bank accounts and roughly 45 shell companies to move scam proceeds to accounts in China. Prosecutors say the underlying fraud used social media and messaging apps to build trust, show fake investment profits, and steal additional deposits.
Why it matters: This highlights the scale and persistence of pig-butchering-style investment fraud that can drain victims’ life savings. Consumers should be wary of unsolicited investment pitches and profit screenshots, while banks, platforms, and investigators should watch for shell-company accounts and cross-border laundering patterns tied to scam operations.
Sergiu Gatlan
2026.07.17
100% relevant
This article establishes a distinct criminal case centered on a specific U.S. indictment over laundering proceeds from cyber-enabled investment fraud, rather than updating one of the existing tracked scam-enforcement stories.
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