U.S. Looks to Grab $7.1M in Crypto From Investment Scam

TheCryptoTimes2025-07-10 tarihinde yayınlandı2025-07-23 tarihinde güncellendi

The U.S. authorities are planning to seize $7.1 million in cryptocurrency linked to a fraudulent oil and gas investment scheme. The alleged scam scheme ran between June 2022 and July 2024. 

The co-conspirators of the scam convinced victims to send money to escrow accounts for oil tank storage purchases in either Rotterdam, the Netherlands or Houston, Texas. They lured investors by saying that they could earn significant profits by renting oil tank storage obtained by others.

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) noted that once victims sent funds to one of the accounts, they did not receive any further information on their investment, and the co-conspirators stopped responding. The co-conspirators moved the funds offshore to at least 81 different accounts at financial institutions and 19 different cryptocurrency accounts. The stolen funds were then used to purchase various cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Tether, USD Coin, and Ethereum. 

Acting U.S. Attorney Luthy Miller said, “The co-schemers in this fraud moved their ill-gotten gain through various cryptocurrency accounts to try to launder the money stolen from victims… Federal investigators and prosecutors in our office moved as quickly as possible to trace and seize the cryptocurrency so that some of the losses can be returned to victims.”

Geoffrey K. Auyeung, 47, a resident of Newcastle, Washington, was indicted as a co-conspirator in the case last year in Aug. He was charged with receiving a majority of the fraudulent proceeds from the scheme.

When Auyeung was arrested, $2.3 million was seized from his bank accounts. And the $7.1 million in cryptocurrency the government is requesting to forfeit is in addition to the funds seized during his arrest. The forfeited money will also be distributed back to the victims pending the court’s approval of the forfeiture.

Also Read: Hong Kong Police Arrest Four in DGCX XinKangJia Crypto Scam

İlgili Okumalar

Q-Day Countdown: Will Quantum Computing End Cryptocurrencies?

Quantum Computing's Threat to Cryptocurrency: A Countdown to Q-Day Quantum computing, specifically Shor's algorithm, poses a fundamental threat to the public-key cryptography (e.g., ECDSA, RSA) that secures blockchain networks like Bitcoin and Ethereum. This critical juncture, known as Q-Day, is estimated to occur potentially within the next 5-15 years. The core vulnerability stems from the public and immutable nature of blockchains. Assets in addresses where the public key is already exposed on-chain (e.g., spent outputs) are at direct risk, as a sufficiently powerful quantum computer could derive the private key. This threatens the very trust model of cryptocurrencies. The response lies in Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC)—algorithms like lattice-based ML-DSA and hash-based SLH-DSA, which are resistant to quantum attacks. NIST has standardized key PQC algorithms (FIPS 203, 204, 205), providing a migration path. However, the primary challenge is not technical but socio-economic and involves complex governance: * **Bitcoin's** path is constrained by its conservative ethos. Migrating requires a soft-fork to new address types, facing hurdles like significantly larger signature sizes and, most critically, the divisive governance question of how to handle at-risk legacy UTXOs without violating core principles. * **Ethereum** is pursuing a "cryptographic agility" strategy, with a multi-layered roadmap. It leverages account abstraction for user accounts and is developing compressed hash-based signatures (e.g., leanXMSS) for its consensus layer, aiming for a full-stack upgrade over time. In conclusion, quantum computing does not spell an instant end for cryptocurrency but initiates a critical countdown. The industry has a limited "engineering comfort window" to orchestrate a coordinated, ecosystem-wide migration to PQC. The ultimate bottlenecks are the immense coordination efforts and governance decisions required for this foundational transition.

marsbit14 dk önce

Q-Day Countdown: Will Quantum Computing End Cryptocurrencies?

marsbit14 dk önce

Trump, the President Who Knows Best How to 'Trade Stocks'

Former US President Donald Trump reported a record-breaking $2.2 billion in personal income for 2025, the highest annual income ever disclosed by a sitting president. This figure, from a 927-page government ethics filing, represented a 3.5-fold increase from his $600 million income in 2024 and boosted his net worth to $6.5 billion. The primary drivers were cryptocurrency (64% of income, approximately $1.4 billion) and real estate (26%, approximately $575 million). His crypto earnings stemmed largely from the launch of his personal meme coin, $TRUMP, generating over $600 million in licensing fees, and substantial profits from the WLFI token and its parent company. Despite a sluggish property market, his Mar-a-Lago resort and associated golf clubs saw revenue surges of 50% and 27%, respectively, attributed to their use as venues for presidential events. Trump's financial disclosure also revealed an unprecedented level of stock market activity, with over 22,000 trades executed in 2025, averaging 87 trades per market day. Media analyses noted several instances where significant trading coincided with major policy announcements, such as proposed tariffs, raising questions about potential conflicts of interest. While the White House stated these trades were handled by a family-managed trust fund and not Trump directly, critics highlighted this as a departure from the blind trusts traditionally used by presidents post-Watergate. The report has intensified debate over the commercialization of the presidency. Supporters view it as a success story of a businessman-president, while critics argue it demonstrates an unprecedented conversion of public influence into private wealth, with policy decisions potentially linked to personal financial gains. The controversy centers on whether Trump's earnings represent innovative entrepreneurship or a fundamental conflict of interest, sparking renewed calls for stricter ethics reforms in US governance.

marsbit24 dk önce

Trump, the President Who Knows Best How to 'Trade Stocks'

marsbit24 dk önce

Countdown to Q-Day: Will Quantum Computing End Cryptocurrencies?

The article explores the existential threat quantum computing poses to cryptocurrencies and the urgent need for "post-quantum" migration. It outlines that quantum computers, through Shor's algorithm, could break the elliptic-curve cryptography (ECC) underlying blockchain security, potentially allowing private keys to be derived from public keys. The core challenge is not a lack of post-quantum cryptography (PQC) standards—like NIST's ML-KEM and ML-DSA—but the immense complexity of upgrading entire ecosystems before "Q-Day" (when quantum computers become capable of such attacks, estimated around 2035-2045). Key points include: * **Bitcoin's** risk is concentrated in legacy UTXOs with exposed public keys (e.g., early P2PK outputs). Migration faces massive hurdles: PQC signatures are much larger, increasing transaction size and cost, and the governance dilemma of handling un-migrated assets threatens its "code is law" ethos. * **Ethereum's** strategy focuses on "cryptographic agility," using Account Abstraction for user accounts and developing compressed hash-based signatures (like leanXMSS with SNARK aggregation) for consensus. Its migration is a complex, full-stack overhaul of execution, consensus, and data layers. * The "security debt" is enormous. The comfortable engineering window for a coordinated, ecosystem-wide upgrade is only 5-8 years. High-value infrastructure (exchanges, bridges) may face pressure before mainnet protocols. In conclusion, quantum computing is not an instant "doomsday" event but a forcing function for systemic change. Bitcoin's ultimate test is social consensus and property rights governance, while Ethereum's is technical complexity. Failure to migrate in time could lead to a fundamental re-pricing of crypto assets.

链捕手28 dk önce

Countdown to Q-Day: Will Quantum Computing End Cryptocurrencies?

链捕手28 dk önce

Strategy executes first Bitcoin sale under new treasury framework to fund dividends

Strategy has sold 3,588 Bitcoin for approximately $216 million, executing its newly adopted Digital Credit Capital Framework for the first time. The sale was conducted to fund dividends on the company's Digital Credit securities. This transaction reduced Strategy's Bitcoin holdings to 843,775 BTC. The recently introduced framework authorizes limited Bitcoin sales to support corporate purposes like building U.S. dollar reserves, paying dividends, and funding share repurchases, while aiming to preserve the company's long-term Bitcoin exposure. This move represents a strategic shift, integrating Bitcoin as a source of liquidity within its treasury management, rather than a departure from its accumulation strategy.

ambcrypto32 dk önce

Strategy executes first Bitcoin sale under new treasury framework to fund dividends

ambcrypto32 dk önce

Losing $55 Million to Sell Bitcoin, MicroStrategy's Faith Reaches Its Interest Payment Day

On July 6th, Michael Saylor's MicroStrategy announced the sale of 3,588 BTC for approximately $216 million, incurring a realized loss of around $55.45 million compared to its average cost basis. This move, contradicting Saylor's long-standing "never sell" Bitcoin philosophy, was executed to pay dividends on its digital credit securities. The article traces this shift from a small "desensitization test" sale of 32 BTC in late May to the board's authorization on June 30th to sell up to $1.25 billion in Bitcoin for corporate purposes like dividends and buybacks. Analysis reveals that MicroStrategy's previous growth "flywheel"—using stock premiums to fund more Bitcoin purchases—has stalled. With its stock trading near a critical threshold (1.22x its Bitcoin NAV), issuing new shares would dilute value. Simultaneously, its financing channels (preferred stock, common stock ATM, convertible notes) are constrained while facing rigid annual dividend/interest obligations of roughly $1.76 billion. Consequently, selling Bitcoin became the calculated "optimal solution" under its own financial model. This transforms MicroStrategy from crypto's most prominent steady buyer into a predictable seller, creating a potential overhead of ~2,400 BTC in monthly selling pressure if obligations are fully covered by sales. This shift challenges the valuation models of the entire Digital Asset Treasury (DAT) sector that emulated MicroStrategy. The company's path forward now hinges on Bitcoin's price recovery, which would allow its preferred stock to trade at par and reopen its financing flywheel, creating a cyclical dependency between the firm's financial model and the asset it holds.

链捕手56 dk önce

Losing $55 Million to Sell Bitcoin, MicroStrategy's Faith Reaches Its Interest Payment Day

链捕手56 dk önce

İşlemler

Spot
活动图片