STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Two Staten Islanders masterminded a multimillion-dollar investment fraud and money-laundering scheme, called a “pig-butchering” scam because it bled over 200 victims dry, federal prosecutors allege.
Brothers Jin Hua Zhang, 35; and Jin Fu Zhang, 39, are among 11 defendants charged in the $18 million illegal enterprise referred to as “Sha Zu Pan” and the “pig-butchering scam,” Brooklyn federal prosecutors said.
The defendants also operated an unlicensed money-transmitting business in which they allegedly converted about $52 million in cash into cashier’s checks on behalf of customers, officials said.
An indictment said the scam ran for about 15 months from May 2021 to August of this year.
It worked this way:
Victims were contacted on messaging applications, such as WhatsApp, by strangers who claimed to have made money by investing in cryptocurrency markets and foreign exchange markets, said authorities.
Once convinced of investing, victims were directed by purported account managers to wire funds to specific bank accounts, prosecutors said.
The defendants used false names, forged Chinese passports and other individuals’ identification documents to open those bank accounts, officials said.
The victims were later denied the ability to withdraw their invested funds, said officials.
The Zhangs oversaw the scam and managed a network of individuals who laundered the victims’ money to other bank accounts or withdrew those funds, authorities said.
In…
