Today, the Department of State's Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs is announcing a reward offer under the Transnational Organized Crime Rewards Program (TOCRP) of up to $4 million for information leading to the arrest of Daren Li for facilitating the laundering of proceeds for various scam centers in Southeast Asia. Li was convicted and sentenced on money laundering charges in the U.S. Court for the Central District of California but remains a fugitive.
According to court documents, Li, a citizen of the People's Republic of China and St. Kitts and Nevis who resided at various times in the People's Republic of China, Cambodia, and the United Arab Emirates, admitted to conspiring with others to launder funds obtained from victims through cryptocurrency scams and related fraud. Scam centers use the services of money launderers who use cryptocurrency to transfer scam proceeds from victims in the United States and to avoid detection through anti-money laundering provisions.
Li instructed co-conspirators to open U.S. bank accounts on behalf of shell companies and monitored the receipt and execution of interstate and international wire transfers of victim funds. Li admitted that at least $73.6 million in victim funds were directly deposited into bank accounts associated with him and his co-conspirators, including at least $59.8 million from U.S. shell companies that laundered victim proceeds.
Today's reward offer complements the Department of Justice's announcement of charges against two Chinese nationals running a scam compound in Burma and attempting to start a compound in Cambodia, the seizure of a Telegram messaging app channel used to recruit human trafficking victims to a scam compound in Cambodia, and the seizure of 503 fraudulent web domains used to perpetrate cryptocurrency investment fraud, and Department of the Treasury's announcement of sanctions targeting against Kok An, a Cambodian senator who controls scam compounds throughout the country, as well as 28 individuals and entities in his network.
Today's reward offer is authorized by the Secretary of State under the TOCRP
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