More than $36.9 million, taken from over 174 American victims, passed through one account at Deltec Bank in the Bahamas before it reached scam operators in Cambodia. Prosecutors say Zheng Zhao helped run that route. A Chinese national, Zhao has now been extradited from the Netherlands to face federal charges in California and has been arraigned.
The case sits inside a wider United States Department of Justice investigation into cross-border cyber fraud networks working out of scam centers in Cambodia. For Washington, this is a reach-across-borders case: an arrest in Dutch custody, a transfer to a California courtroom, and a money trail through the Caribbean to Southeast Asia.
How victims were drawn in
Court documents say the syndicate first made contact through unsolicited social media messages, phone calls, texts and online dating platforms. Once it had built a personal relationship and some trust, it steered people into what looked like digital asset trading services. The websites copied legitimate cryptocurrency exchanges, with invented balances and simulated profits that made investments appear to be growing.
The returns were fiction, and the deposits went straight into accounts the syndicate controlled. Victims learned the truth when their withdrawal attempts were blocked, often alongside demands for more cash.
Money routed through the Bahamas
Investigators say co-conspirators ran domestic US bank accounts that fed the full $36.9 million into the Deltec account. There, under Zhao and his associates, the money was converted into Tether, a cryptocurrency pegged to the dollar. The tokens then went to an encrypted wallet controlled in Cambodia and on to regional scam operators. Investigators said the shell companies, overseas bank accounts and token transfers were used deliberately to evade detection and make recovery harder.
Charges and the wider case
Zhao was charged in August 2025 with conspiracy to commit money laundering. The statutory maximum is 20 years in prison. His case is part of a larger prosecution that has already produced convictions of eight co-conspirators. ShengSheng He and Jingliang Su admitted conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business, and were sentenced to 51 and 46 months respectively.
The United States Secret Service Global Investigative Operations Center leads the inquiry, supported by Homeland Security Investigations, the National Targeting Center of Customs and Border Protection, the Diplomatic Security Service and the Marshals Service. The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs worked with Dutch law enforcement on Zhao’s detention and transfer. Proceedings against him continue, and prosecutors must prove the charges at trial.
Sources
- Chinese National Extradited to US in ₹330 Crore Crypto Investment Fraud Case Involving Over 174 Victims
- China wants 61,800 Bitcoin from UK’s $5.7B fraud case. Who has the right to them?
- Why Do People Lose Money in Crypto? 7 Common Mistakes – Blockonomi
Photo: Radojicicugo (CC BY-SA 4.0)
