Feds seize $15B worth of bitcoin in 'pig butchering' scams that used 'forced labor camps'

Federal authorities have seized about $15 billion worth of bitcoin in alleged fraud and money laundering schemes that used trafficked workers in Southeast Asia to defraud victims in the United States and around the world, prosecutors announced Oct. 14.

In an indictment unsealed on Oct. 14, federal prosecutors accused Chen "Vincent" Zhi, 37, of operating "industrial-scale" cryptocurrency scams that involved forced-labor compounds across Cambodia. Prosecutors alleged that workers were held against their will in these compounds and were forced to participate in cryptocurrency investment fraud schemes, known as "pig butchering" scams...