PANews reported on November 27 that the United States Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Ohio (USAO) filed a civil forfeiture lawsuit against 947,883 USDT. According to court documents, the cryptocurrency scam occurred in October 2023, when a resident of Elyria, Ohio, received a pop-up window on his computer asking him to call to solve a technical problem. The scammer claimed that the victim's retirement account had been hacked and the funds were being transferred to casinos in China, Russia and Las Vegas. After the scammer remotely controlled the computer, the victim's life savings of $425,000 were transferred to multiple cryptocurrency accounts.
After blockchain analysis, law enforcement officers executed a federal seizure order on July 31, 2024, successfully recovered 947,883 USDT and transferred them to a virtual currency wallet controlled by law enforcement. The USAO filed a forfeiture lawsuit on November 26, 2024, and if successful, the funds will be used to compensate the victims. The FBI Cleveland Division is currently actively investigating similar cases and thanks Tether for its assistance in this case. The USAO reminds the public that if they find fraud involving the elderly, they can call the National Elder Fraud Hotline 1-833-FRAUD-11 or visit the FBI's IC3 Elder Fraud Complaint Center to report it.
