California Man Gets 51 Months for Laundering $37M in Cambodia-Based Crypto Scam

California resident Shengsheng He received a 51-month federal prison sentence for laundering $36.9 million from victims in an international crypto investment scam operated from Cambodia-based ￰3￱ court ordered $26.8 million in restitution for victims of the elaborate scheme. He, 39, of La Puente, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business as a former co-owner of Bahamas-based Axis Digital ￰4￱ criminal network induced ￰5￱ to transfer funds through social media interactions, telephone calls, and online dating ￰6￱ Man Sentenced for Role in Global Digital Asset Investment Scam Conspiracy Resulting in Theft of More than $36.9M from Victims ￰0￱ — Criminal Division (@DOJCrimDiv) September 8, 2025 A Complex International Money Laundering Network The conspiracy involved overseas co-conspirators contacting American victims through unsolicited communications to gain trust before promoting fraudulent digital asset ￰7￱ falsely told victims their investments were appreciating while stealing the transferred ￰8￱ to the DOJ, over $36.9 million in victim funds flowed from ￰9￱ accounts to a single Deltec Bank account in the Bahamas opened under Axis Digital Limited’s ￰10￱ and co-conspirators directed the bank to convert victim funds into Tether stablecoin and transfer converted funds to Cambodia-controlled digital ￰11￱ co-conspirators then distributed USDT to scam center leaders throughout the region, including operations in ￰12￱ money laundering infrastructure spanned multiple countries while maintaining the appearance of legitimate business ￰13￱ co-conspirators have pleaded guilty, including Chinese national Daren Li, in ￰14￱ since April 2024, and Lu Zhang, who managed U.

S.-based money launderer ￰15￱ pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering ￰16￱ co-founded Axis Digital with Jose Somarriba, while Chinese national Jingliang Su joined as director, participating in digital asset ￰17￱ and Su each pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges for operating unlicensed money transmitting ￰18￱ DOJ Crypto Crime Enforcement The Justice Department has secured increasingly severe sentences for crypto-related crimes throughout ￰19￱ May, Alex Mashinsky, former Celsius CEO, received 12 years in prison for defrauding customers of $4.7 billion through fraudulent lending practices and token ￰20￱ had sought 20 years for Mashinsky, calling his actions “deliberate and calculated” rather than market ￰21￱ admitted to using customer deposits to pay promised yields while making risky, unsecured loans and falsely claiming financial stability.

Similarly, in July, Nicholas Truglia saw his sentence increased from 18 months to 12 years after failing to pay $20.4 million in restitution from a $22 million crypto fraud ￰22￱ judge criticized Truglia’s lavish lifestyle while owing victims substantial ￰23￱ same July, Rowland Marcus Andrade received seven years for wire fraud and money laundering linked to AML Bitcoin, raising $10 million through false promises about cryptocurrency ￰24￱ laundered over $2 million for personal expenses, including Texas real estate and luxury vehicles. A crypto influencer has been sentenced to one year and one day in prison for orchestrating a cryptojacking scheme. #Scam #Crypto ￰1￱ — ￰25￱ (@cryptonews) August 18, 2025 Most recently, in an August 18 ruling, Charles Parks III, known as “CP3O,” received one year for cryptojacking schemes that defrauded cloud computing providers of $3.5 million in ￰26￱ used fake corporate identities to mine nearly $1 million worth of crypto using stolen computing ￰27￱ enforcement patterns indicate federal authorities are pursuing lengthy sentences for crypto crimes regardless of ￰28￱ range from million-dollar schemes to multi-billion-dollar platform collapses with consistent emphasis on victim ￰29￱ Threat of International Crypto Scams Crypto fraud losses reached $2.2 billion in the first half of 2025 , according to CertiK security ￰30￱ breaches caused $1.7 billion in losses across 34 incidents, while phishing scams accounted for $410 million across 132 ￰31￱ Cambodia-based scam network targeting American victims follows established patterns of international criminal organizations exploiting crypto’s cross-border ￰32￱ sanctions 19 Myanmar, Cambodia entities for crypto scams that defrauded Americans of over $10B through forced labor. #Crypto #Scam ￰2￱ — ￰33￱ (@cryptonews) September 9, 2025 Recent Treasury sanctions against 19 Myanmar and Cambodia entities revealed the scope of forced labor operations behind these ￰34￱ fact, the US Treasury mentioned that the scam networks have defrauded Americans of over $10 billion in 2024 ￰35￱ criminal organizations use debt bondage and violence to coerce victims into targeting American citizens, mainly through crypto fraud schemes.