US Busts Philippine 'Pig-Butchering' Op

Kansas banker destroys a small town’s finances

The US Justice Department has busted a massive cryptocurrency laundering operation based in the Paranaque section of Manila that allegedly scammed victims out of at least US$225 million, including the manager of a rural bank in the United States that collapsed with the loss of US$47 million and left a local church and investment fund penniless and his family and friends devastated in the tiny town of Elkhart, Kansas, population 1,888.

Investigators identified at least 430 suspected victims in Texas, Arizona, Virginia, Iowa, California and other areas who fell for so-called “pig-butchering” schemes, a translated from Chinese shāzhūpán and which refers to a scam in which the victim is “fattened up prior to slaughter,” encouraged to make increasing financial contributions over a long period in fake investment schemes, usually in cryptocurrencies…