The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Ohio is making a big move to claw back roughly $8.2 million in Tether’s USDT from three crypto wallets, aiming to return the funds to victims of a slick pig butchering scam. A statement on February 27, 2025, says the money was seized from scammers running a fake crypto investment scheme that duped at least 33 people across the U.S. out of $4.9 million, plus another $1 million from five unidentified victims.
Here’s how it went down: scammers started with “wrong number” texts, hitting up random folks on phones, dating apps, and pro meet-up groups to strike up chats. They’d play friendly, build trust, then slowly lure victims into a shady crypto deal—classic pig butchering. Victims got step-by-step guidance to set up real accounts on platforms like Crypto.com and Coinbase, fund them, and then shift the cash to what looked like a legit investment site. But it was all a trap, controlled by the scammers. Some victims even got small early payouts to make it seem real, but eventually, their funds got locked tight. When they tried to pull out, the scammers hit them with fake tax demands, and bam—accounts frozen, money gone.
One heartbreaking case stands out: a Lake County, Ohio, woman lost her entire life savings, $663,000, including her Roth IRA, after falling for the scheme. She reported it to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center in June 2024, kicking off the investigation. The feds traced the stolen crypto using blockchain analysis, zeroed in on three wallets, and with help from Tether, froze the funds, moving them to a law-enforcement wallet.
Now, U.S. Attorney Carol Skutnik and Assistant U.S. Attorney James Morford are asking the court to seize those $8.2 million officially, arguing the wallets also hold extra cash linked to money laundering and wire fraud—more than what victims lost. It’s a big deal, especially since pig butchering scams are exploding, making up 33.2% of crypto scam inflows in 2024, per Chainalysis, with deposits jumping 210% from the year before. If the court says yes, this could be a rare win for victims, but it’s a drop in the bucket against the tide of these scams hitting folks hard.
