{"id":60417,"date":"2026-02-10T08:51:23","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T16:51:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=60417"},"modified":"2026-02-10T08:52:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T16:52:07","slug":"fugitive-crypto-scammer-gets-20-years-in-73-million-fraud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=60417","title":{"rendered":"Fugitive Crypto Scammer Gets 20 Years in $73 Million Fraud"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\" title=\"\" data-start=\"107\" data-end=\"370\"><span style=\"font-size: 20px;\"><strong data-start=\"107\" data-end=\"122\">LOS ANGELES<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\" title=\"\" data-start=\"107\" data-end=\"370\"><span style=\"font-size: 20px;\"><span class=\"hover:entity-accent entity-underline inline cursor-pointer align-baseline\"><span class=\"whitespace-normal\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-6759 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Department-of-Justice-300x197.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"197\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Department-of-Justice-300x197.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Department-of-Justice-90x60.jpg 90w, https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Department-of-Justice.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>Daren Li<\/span><\/span>, a dual national of China and St. Kitts and Nevis, was sentenced in absentia to 20 years in federal prison for laundering more than $73 million in an international cryptocurrency scam targeting U.S. victims.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\" title=\"\" data-start=\"372\" data-end=\"597\"><span style=\"font-size: 20px;\">Li, 42, became a fugitive in December 2025 after cutting off his ankle monitor. U.S. District Judge <span class=\"hover:entity-accent entity-underline inline cursor-pointer align-baseline\"><span class=\"whitespace-normal\">R. Gary Klausner<\/span><\/span> imposed the statutory maximum 240-month sentence. Restitution will be determined later.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\" title=\"\" data-start=\"599\" data-end=\"935\" data-speechifyplaybackhighlighter-highlight=\"true\"><span style=\"font-size: 20px;\">Li pleaded guilty in November 2024 to conspiracy to commit money laundering. Prosecutors said he and his co-conspirators used social media, dating platforms and spoofed crypto websites to gain victims\u2019 trust, then funneled at least $73.6 million through shell companies and converted the proceeds to virtual currency to hide its source.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\" data-start=\"937\" data-end=\"1197\"><span style=\"font-size: 20px;\">Assistant Attorney General <span class=\"hover:entity-accent entity-underline inline cursor-pointer align-baseline\"><span class=\"whitespace-normal\">A. Tysen Duva<\/span><\/span> said authorities are working with international partners to return Li to the U.S. Eight co-conspirators have pleaded guilty. Li is the first defendant sentenced who directly handled victim funds.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>LOS ANGELES\u00a0 Daren Li, a dual national of China and St. Kitts and Nevis, was sentenced in absentia to 20 years in federal prison for laundering more than $73 million in an&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":56273,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Fugitive Crypto Scammer Gets 20 Years in $73 Million Fraud<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"LOS ANGELES\u00a0 Daren Li, a dual national of China and St. Kitts and Nevis, was sentenced in 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