U.S. prosecutors charged Zhuoying Chen and Haojie Zhang with laundering $43 million from cyber investment fraud. The defendants allegedly managed a network that facilitated the transfer of fraud proceeds to China, impacting numerous victims.
Prosecutors in the U.S. have charged Zhuoying Chen, 27, and Haojie Zhang, 38, for their involvement in laundering $43 million derived from investment fraud schemes. They allegedly ran a crime ring operating out of Queens and Brooklyn between 2020 and 2022.
The indictment details how Chen and Zhang managed a network of over a dozen individuals who facilitated the laundering process through a complex system of 140 bank accounts linked to approximately 45 shell companies. Funds from scam victims were ultimately transferred to bank accounts in China.
The bulk of the underlying scams involved perpetrators reaching out to targets through social media and messaging apps to establish trust. Victims were then shown fabricated profiles depicting profits to encourage further investments, ultimately resulting in stolen funds.
According to the FBI's 2025 Internet Crime Report, investment scams represented nearly half of all scam incidents, resulting in substantial financial losses, which increased from $6.5 billion in 2024 to $8.6 billion in the last reported year. This highlights the increasing prevalence and cost of such fraud in the U.S.
In response to the growing issue, U.S. federal authorities have formed the Scam Center Strike Force to disrupt crypto-scam networks. Chen and Zhang's case is among several recent actions taken by the Justice Department against individuals operating similar scams.
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U.S. prosecutors charged Zhuoying Chen and Haojie Zhang with laundering $43 million from cyber investment fraud. The defendants allegedly managed a network that facilitated the transfer of fraud proceeds to China, impacting numerous victims.