The U.S. Department of the Treasury has sanctioned a Philippines-based tech company, Funnull Technology Inc., for providing the computer infrastructure for “hundreds of thousands of websites” involved in pig butchering scams, according to a Thursday press release from the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC).
OFAC also sanctioned Liu Lizhi, a Chinese national working as Funnull Technology’s administrator. According to the press release, Funnull Technology has directly facilitated more than $200 million in losses from scam victims in the U.S. Of those victims, the average losses per individual were over $150,000.
“Today’s action underscores our focus on disrupting the criminal enterprises, like Funnull, that enable these cyber scams and deprive Americans of their hard-earned savings,” said Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Michael Faulkender in the press release. “The United States is strongly committed to ensuring the continued growth of a legitimate, safe, and secure digital asset ecosystem, including the use of virtual currencies and similar technologies.”
Pig butchering schemes are a type of crypto investment scam in which the victim is groomed over a long period of time, akin to a pig being fattened up before the slaughter, before being pressed to contribute large amounts of money into a fraudulent crypto investment. The scams are often but not always romantic in nature, and often begin with an unsolicited text. The majority of the scams are organized by criminal organizations in Southeast Asia, who use victims of labor trafficking — essentially slaves, kept in terrible conditions — to carry out the scams.
Last year, OFAC sanctioned a wealthy Cambodian businessman, Ly Yong Phat — along with several of his businesses and hotels — for his role in pig butchering-associated human trafficking and torture.
Read more: US Treasury Sanctions Cambodian Tycoon With Ties to Pig Butchering Scams
According to OFAC, Funnull Technology supplies cybercriminals with IP addresses, purchased in bulk from cloud service providers worldwide, which are then used to host scam platforms and other malicious web content. These websites and domain names are crafted to mimic trusted websites, tricking the victims into believing their investments are legitimate.
Liu allegedly “possessed spreadsheets and other documents containing information about Funnull’s employees, their performance, and their progress on tasks,” OFAC’s press release said. “These tasks included assigning domain names to cybercriminals, including domains associated with virtual currency investment fraud, phishing scams, and online gambling sites.”
In placing Funnull Technology and Liu on the Specially Designated Nationals list (SDN), OFAC is barring all U.S. persons – including citizens overseas and residents living in America – from transacting with them in any way.