Chinese Man Sentenced for Scamming $37 Million in Crime Ring

Jingliang Su, a resident of the United Arab Emirates, is one of eight co-conspirators indicted.

The U.S. Department of Justice in Washington on Jan. 6, 2026. Madalina Kilroy/The Epoch Times

The United States sentenced Chinese citizen Jingliang “James” Su to 46 months for his role in a digital crime ring that scammed 174 Americans, prosecutors announced on Jan. 27.

Su was a resident of the United Arab Emirates and worked with co-conspirators, including American and Chinese citizens, who resided in California, Mexico, Cambodia, and China, according to court documents. He is the eighth of the co-conspirators indicted and third to plead guilty.

Su pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to operate an illegal money transmitting business last year, and the court has ordered him to pay $26.8 million in restitution.

Su’s role was that of a money launderer, according to court documents, helping the group transfer victims’ digital currency through U.S. shell companies and international banks.

He was part of an international crime ring that operated out of Cambodia—one of the many “pig butchering” scam centers that have increasingly targeted Americans in recent years.

Conspirators would contact victims through social media, phone calls, text messages, and dating services and gain their trust, sometimes building remote romantic relationships, according to court documents, as is common practice in pig butchering scams.

Then the conspirators would promote fraudulent cryptocurrency investments and direct them to fake websites that resembled legitimate cryptocurrency platforms, known as “spoofing.” Victims were then persuaded to invest cryptocurrency or send money through wire transfers to make such investments.

Those funds were transferred to shell companies registered in the United States, including B&C Commerce, Jimei Trading, YXJ Trading, SMX Beauty, and others. According to court documents, Su received a commission for laundering these funds through the shell companies and international banks.

According to prosecutors, almost all the laundered money flowed through Deltec Bank & Trust, based in the Bahamas, and was then converted into cryptocurrency pegged to the U.S. dollar and distributed to criminals in foreign scam compounds. 

According to prosecutors, Su traveled to Cambodia to meet with co-conspirators profiting from the scam.

“Conspiracies like the one involved in this case are the lifeline for international cryptocurrency investment frauds,” prosecutors said in a sentencing memo.

The government had been unable to freeze or seize assets during the crime, according to court documents, with funds “dissipated across unhosted virtual wallets controlled by individuals overseas, primarily in Southeast Asia.”

The government was able to identify 174 fraud victims and their loss amounts, and they may recover the losses from restitution paid by Su and his co-conspirators.

Su’s attorneys did not immediately respond to an inquiry from The Epoch Times.