Five individuals have pleaded guilty to their roles in a sprawling international cryptocurrency scam, responsible for stealing over $36.9 million from defrauded investors in the U.S. Law enforcement agencies uncovered details of the elaborate scheme that utilized shell companies, offshore accounts, and digital asset wallets to launder the stolen funds. 53-year-old Jose Somarriba and his co-conspirators, including Joseph Wong (33), Shengsheng He (39), Yicheng Zhang (41) and Jingliang Su (44), operated a network that tricked U.S. victims into investing in fake cryptocurrency projects under the guise of legitimate opportunities. 💰, Their scheme was facilitated by online interactions, including social media, text messages, phone calls, and dating websites. Victims were lured to transfer their money under false pretenses, with the criminals receiving funds for themselves, moving the money into accounts controlled by them through shell companies and offshore banking in the Bahamas and Cambodia. The investigation highlighted how a sophisticated network of money laundering operations facilitated the movement of stolen funds from the U.S. to various international destinations. Suspects now await sentencing, facing potential prison time ranging from 20 years for money laundering conspiracy charges to five years for operating an unlicensed money services business. The case comes amid rising concerns about cryptocurrency-related fraud as the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) revealed that Americans over 60 have been most affected by such scams, with over 140,000 complaints and nearly $9 billion in losses reported last year.