A dual citizen of China and St. Kitts and Nevis has been sentenced to 20 years in US federal prison for masterminding a global cryptocurrency fraud that siphoned more than $73 million from victims, many of them in the United States.
Daren Li, 42, received the maximum statutory sentence in California’s Central District, along with three years of supervised release, according to a statement released Tuesday by the US Department of Justice.
Prosecutors said Li and at least eight accomplices set up fake domains and websites designed to mimic legitimate trading platforms, using them to promote fraudulent crypto investments after building trust with victims—a tactic commonly known as “pig butchering.”
Court records show the group often contacted victims through social media and dating apps, gradually forming personal or professional relationships before convincing them to send funds to accounts controlled by the conspirators.
“The court’s sentence reflects the seriousness of Li’s conduct, which inflicted devastating losses on victims across the country,” said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva, adding that authorities would continue working with international law enforcement to ensure Li serves his full sentence in the United States.
Li is the first defendant in the case to be sentenced. Eight other co-conspirators have pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing.
Li admitted that the scheme led victims to transfer at least $73.6 million into accounts tied to the defendants, including $59.8 million funneled through US shell companies used to launder stolen funds.
The sentencing comes more than a year after Li pleaded guilty to conspiracy to launder proceeds from crypto fraud schemes, as previously reported by Cointelegraph in November 2024.
The investigation is still ongoing and is being led by the US Secret Service’s Global Investigative Operations Center, with support from Homeland Security Investigations’ El Camino Real Financial Crimes Task Force, the US Marshals Service, and other agencies.
Crypto scams surge at the start of 2026
Crypto scams and phishing attacks rose sharply in January, with losses reaching $370 million—the highest monthly total in 11 months—according to crypto security firm CertiK.
Of that amount, $311 million was linked to phishing schemes, driven largely by a single high-impact social engineering attack in which one victim lost roughly $284 million.
The $370 million figure represents the largest monthly loss since February 2025, when attackers stole roughly $1.5 billion in total, most of it stemming from the $1.4 billion hack of the Bybit exchange.
