{"id":125197,"date":"2025-03-17T02:15:53","date_gmt":"2025-03-17T02:15:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/?p=125197"},"modified":"2025-03-17T02:15:53","modified_gmt":"2025-03-17T02:15:53","slug":"crypto-platform-debiex-must-pay-2-5m-in-cftc-pig-butchering-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/?p=125197","title":{"rendered":"Crypto platform Debiex must pay $2.5M in CFTC \u2018pig butchering\u2019 case"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Source: Cointelegraph.com NewsCrypto platform Debiex has been ordered to pay around $2.5 million after it failed to respond to a US Commodity Futures Trading Commission suit accusing it of being a romance scam ring.<br \/>\nArizona federal court Judge Douglas Rayes on March 13 granted the CFTC\u2019s earlier motion for summary judgment in its case and ordered Debiex to pay back around $2.26 million it stole from its customers, along with a civil penalty of nearly $221,500.<br \/>\nJudge Rayes said there was no evidence that Debiex\u2019s failure to respond to the CFTC was the result of \u201cexcusable neglect.\u201d<br \/>\nThe CFTC sued Debiex in January 2024, saying its staff ran a so-called \u201cpig butchering\u201d scam, where they initiated romantic relationships with customers over social media to gain trust to convince them to invest in the platform.<br \/>\nThe scheme hooked five victims who deposited around $2.3 million in total onto Debiex, which the purported trading platform stole, the CFTC said.<br \/>\nA highlighted excerpt of Judge Rayes\u2019 order summarizing the CFTC\u2019s case against Debiex, Source: CourtListenerThe CFTC also accused Zh\u0101ng Ch\u00e9ng Y\u00e1ng of being a \u201cmoney mule\u201d for Debiex, whose crypto wallets were used to accept and steal victims\u2019 funds.<br \/>\nJudge Rayes granted a CFTC motion for default judgment against Zh\u0101ng on March 12, finding it adequately alleged he controls a crypto wallet with OKX \u201cthat received digital assets to which he had no legitimate claim.\u201d<br \/>\nHe said OKX was \u201cvoluntarily preserving\u201d the crypto in Zh\u0101ng\u2019s account and ordered its contents, consisting of $5.70 worth of Tether (USDT) and nearly 63 Ether (ETH) worth around $119,500, to be transferred to an unnamed victim.<br \/>\nThe CFTC said in its January 2024 complaint that Debiex\u2019s scheme saw its unknown managers target potential victims through social media to lure them to websites it had created marketing itself as a \u201cBlockchain Network Decentralized perpetual contract trading platform\u201d where users can conduct futures trading and \u201cMining transactions.\u201d<br \/>\nRelated: Four suspects charged in home invasion of streamer Amouranth\u00a0<br \/>\nDebiex\u2019s staff would present as females and built a rapport with victims through \u201ccontinuous and repeated messaging and sharing purported pictures of themselves\u201d while claiming to be \u201chighly successful digital asset commodities traders,\u201d the CFTC said.<br \/>\nOnce an account was created and the customers sent over their crypto, the CFTC said Debiex would share \u201cfictitious information\u201d about customer balances, trading positions and profits.<br \/>\n\u201cAll of this information was most likely false,\u201d the CFTC said. \u201cThe evidence shows that the Customers\u2019 digital assets were simply sent to numerous digital asset wallets in an attempt to obfuscate their destination.\u201d<br \/>\nMagazine: SEC\u2019s U-turn on crypto leaves key questions unanswered\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/news\/cftc-wins-pig-butchering-case-crypto-platform-debiex?utm_source=rss_feed&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=rss_partner_inbound\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"feedzy-rss-link-icon\" rel=\"noopener\">Read More<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Source: Cointelegraph.com NewsCrypto platform Debiex has been ordered to pay around $2.5 million after it failed to respond to a US Commodity Futures Trading Commission suit accusing it of being&hellip; 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