A Chinese national was sentenced today to 46 months in federal prison for his role in laundering more than $36.9 million from victims in a digital asset investment conspiracy that was carried out from scam centers in Cambodia.
Jingliang Su, 45, was sentenced by United States District Judge R. Gary Klausner, who also ordered him to pay $26 million in restitution.
Su pleaded guilty in June 2025 to one count of conspiracy to operate an illegal money transmitting business.
According to court documents, Su was part of an international criminal network that induced U.S. victims to transfer funds to accounts controlled by co-conspirators, who then laundered victim money through U.S. shell companies, international bank accounts, and digital asset wallets.
The cycle of the scheme began when overseas co-conspirators contacted U.S. victims via unsolicited social media interactions, telephone calls, text messages, and online dating services to gain the victims’ trust. The co-conspirators promoted fraudulent digital asset investments to the victims. The co-conspirators created fake websites that resembled real cryptocurrency trading platforms and convinced victims to send funds through the fake websites for investments.
“New investment opportunities may sound intriguing, but they have a dark side: attracting criminals who, in this case, stole then laundered tens of millions of dollars from their victims,” said First Assistant United States Attorney Bill Essayli. “I thank our law enforcement partners for their efforts at bringing this defendant to justice and I encourage the investing public to be cautious. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”
The scammers would then tell the victims that their investments were appreciating in value when, in fact, the scammers had stolen the victims’ money. More than $36.9 million in victim funds were transferred from U.S. bank accounts controlled by the co-conspirators to a single account at Deltec Bank in the Bahamas. Su and other co-conspirators directed Deltec Bank to convert victim funds to the stablecoin Tether (USDT) and to transfer the converted funds to a digital asset wallet controlled in Cambodia. From there, co-conspirators in Cambodia transferred the USDT to the leaders of scam centers throughout the region. Ultimately, the government was able to identify 174 U.S. victims.
“This defendant and his co-conspirators scammed 174 Americans out of their hard-earned money,” said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “In the digital age, criminals have found new ways to weaponize the internet for fraud. The Criminal Division and its law enforcement partners have continued to evolve and caught large-scale scammers, who target people through their phones, social media, and fake internet sites, steal from them, and then move their money through cryptocurrency and wire transfers outside of the United States.”
Eight co-conspirators have pleaded guilty so far, including Jose Somarriba and ShengSheng He. He and Somarriba each pleaded guilty to conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business and were sentenced to 51 months and 36 months in prison, respectively. Su has been in federal custody since December 2024.
USSS’s Global Investigative Operations Center is investigating the case. The Homeland Security Investigations’ El Camino Real Financial Crimes Task Force, Customs and Border Protection’s National Targeting Center, U.S. Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service, Dominican National Police, and U.S. Marshals Service provided valuable assistance.
Assistant United States Attorneys Nisha Chandran of the Major Frauds Section, and Alexander Gorin and Maxwell Coll of the National Security Division along with Justice Department Trial Attorney Stefanie Schwartz of the Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section (CCIPS), and Trial Attorney Tamara Livshiz of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section, prosecuted this case.
The sentencing is the latest outcome of the Criminal Division’s continuing work to investigate, disrupt, and bring to justice individuals facilitating scam center operations worldwide.
By seizing and forfeiting crime-linked cryptocurrency, dismantling digital infrastructure used by the scammers to target U.S. citizens, and disrupting domestic and international money laundering networks, the Criminal Division and its partners will cut off access to victim proceeds and tools that enable the fraud. As international relationships are critical to address this growing threat, the Criminal Division will draw on its network of International Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property prosecutors who are strategically posted throughout the world to coordinate with foreign law enforcement partners.
CCIPS investigates and prosecutes cybercrime in coordination with domestic and international law enforcement agencies, often with assistance from the private sector. Since 2020, CCIPS has secured the conviction of more than 180 cybercriminals and court orders for the return of more than $350 million in victim funds.
If you or someone you know is a victim of a digital asset investment fraud, report it to IC3.gov.
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