Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
A dual national of China and St. Kitts and Nevis was sentenced in absentia today in the Central District of California to the statutory maximum of 20 years in prison and three years of supervised release for his role in an international cryptocurrency investment conspiracy carried out from scam centers in the Kingdom of Cambodia. The defendant, Daren Li, 42, is a fugitive after cutting off his ankle electronic monitoring device and absconding in December 2025.
“As part of an international cryptocurrency investment scam, Daren Li and his co-conspirators laundered over $73 million dollars stolen from American victims,” said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “The Court’s sentence reflects the gravity of Li’s conduct, which caused devastating losses to victims throughout our country. The Criminal Division will work with our law enforcement partners around the world to ensure that Li is returned to the United States to serve his full sentence.”
“While technology has made it possible for people to quickly communicate with others who live oceans away, it also has made it easier for criminals to prey on innocent victims,” said First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli for the Central District of California. “I urge the investing public to use caution and to not talk to strangers…especially ones who solicit money online.”
On Nov. 12, 2024, Li pleaded guilty in the Central District of California to conspiring with others to launder funds obtained from victims through cryptocurrency scams and related fraud. As part of his plea agreement, Li admitted that unindicted members of the conspiracy would contact victims directly through unsolicited social-media interactions, telephone calls and messages, and online dating services. The unindicted co-conspirators would gain the trust of victims by establishing either professional or romantic relationships with them, often communicating by electronic messages sent via end-to-end encrypted applications. These co-conspirators established spoofed domains and websites that resembled legitimate cryptocurrency trading platforms and promote fraudulent cryptocurrency investments to the victims after gaining the victims’ trust.
In some instances, the co-conspirators would induce victims into investing in cryptocurrency through the fraudulent and spoofed investment platforms. In other iterations of the scam, Li’s unindicted co-conspirators misrepresented to victims that they were from a customer service or technology support company and induced victims to send funds via wire transfer or cryptocurrency trading platforms to purportedly remediate a non-existent virus or other false computer-related problem.
As part of his plea agreement, Li admitted that he and his co-conspirators caused at least $73.6 million in victim funds be directly deposited into bank accounts associated with defendant and his co-conspirators, including at least $59.8 million from U.S. shell companies that laundered victim proceeds.
Li further confessed that, to conceal or disguise the nature of the crime, location, source, ownership, and control of the victim funds, he would direct co-conspirators to open U.S. bank accounts established on behalf of shell companies and would monitor the receipt of interstate and international wire transfers of victim funds. Li and other co-conspirators would receive victim funds in financial accounts that they controlled and then monitor the conversion of victim funds to virtual currency,
Eight co-conspirators have pleaded guilty so far. Li is the first defendant to be sentenced who was directly involved in the ultimate receipt of victim funds.
The U.S Secret Service (USSS) Global Investigative Operations Center is investigating the case. The Homeland Security Investigations’ El Camino Real Financial Crimes Task Force, Customs and Border Protection’s National Targeting Center, U.S. Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service, Dominican National Police, and U.S. Marshals Service provided valuable assistance.
Trial Attorney Stefanie Schwartz of the Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section (CCIPS), Trial Attorney Tamara Livshiz of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section, and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Maxwell Coll, Alexander Gorin, and Nisha Chandran for the Central District of California, prosecuted the case.
The sentencing is the latest outcome of the Criminal Division’s continuing work to investigate, disrupt, and bring to justice individuals facilitating scam center operations worldwide, in partnership with U.S. Attorneys’ Offices across the country. In combating scam centers, the Criminal Division draws on its expertise in countering cybercrime, cryptocurrency fraud, money laundering, human trafficking, and transnational organized crime. By seizing and forfeiting crime-linked cryptocurrency, dismantling digital infrastructure used by the scammers to target U.S. citizens, and disrupting domestic and international money laundering networks, the Criminal Division and its partners will cut off access to victim proceeds and tools that enable the fraud. As international relationships are critical to address this growing threat, the Criminal Division will draw on its network of International Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property prosecutors (ICHIPs) who are strategically posted throughout the world to coordinate with foreign law enforcement partners.
CCIPS investigates and prosecutes cybercrime in coordination with domestic and international law enforcement agencies, often with assistance from the private sector. Since 2020, CCIPS has secured the conviction of over 180 cybercriminals and court orders for the return of over $350 million in victim funds.
If you or someone you know is a victim of a digital asset investment fraud, report it to IC3.gov.