Pig butchering victim recovers $140,000 after investigators trace cryptocurrency to scam wallets

Summary

Aleksey Madan, a 69-year-old victim of a cryptocurrency scam, recently recovered $140,000 he had lost to a fraudulent company called SpireBit. Massachusetts authorities seized the funds as part of an investigation into SpireBit, which targeted Russian-speaking seniors with fake investment opportunities. The scam, known as "pig butchering," involved building trust with victims before stealing large sums of money. SpireBit used social media ads with a fake Elon Musk endorsement and provided false information about executives and a London address. Massachusetts officials, following an NPR investigation, obtained a court order to freeze SpireBit’s assets on Binance and recovered $269,000, which is being returned to victims. The FBI reported that crypto scammers stole over $5.6 billion from Americans in 2022.