The United States Department of Justice is sending a message with its recent effort to confiscate $ 225 million in cryptography linked to pork carnage scams: these funds were stolen from the victims.
At least, that is the food to carry of Phil Selden, member of Cole Schotz PC and former interim prosecutor of the United States for the Maryland district.
The Department of Justice moved to take advantage of these funds last month through a motion of confiscation, although it has not yet publicly identified anyone accused of stealing the funds.
But that is the point, said Selden.
“This is a case of tone establishment,” said Selden, who is now a member of the Cole Schotz PC law firm. “We have victims in the American streets, and the department made it clear that they did not want to wait for an arrest to ensure that cryptography was really seized.”
This tone, said Selden, establishes the direction of the Department of Justice under Matthew Galeotti, the new head of his criminal division. Selden describes Galeotti as an experienced methodical prosecutor accustomed to defeating the rings of toughest organized crimes in New York.
Galeotti, said Selden, understands how criminal networks move money, how the weak regulatory frameworks exploit and, most importantly, how they hurt everyday people.
“This is not just a technological history or a financial history,” he continued. “It is a story about families that lose their savings, and small cities that lose their shores.”
That bank of the small city was Heartland Tri-Fast Bank, an agricultural lendist based in Kansas who became illiterate and collapsed in 2023 after his CEO, Shan Hanes, embezzled almost $ 50 million and moved the funds to cryptographic wallets in the direction of pig scammers.
Hanes was also the greatest victim in the complaint of the Department of Justice.
“In Hong Kong or Shanghai or New York or San Francisco, there is a financial institution in each corner. In Kansas, there are no,” said Selden. “If you do not have a good bank, it is difficult to build or maintain a business, it is difficult to obtain capital for that tractor or that culture cycle.”
What comes next?
Sellen anticipates that the criminal charges are on the horizon, but believes that the Department of Justice did not want to wait for an arrest to make sure the cryptography was seized and that it could be returned to its owners.
The extradition of suspects abroad is a possible path, he explained, although it is a slow and complicated process that is based on mutual legal assistance treaties.
Another strategy could involve attracting suspects to the jurisdictions of the United States where arrests are easier to carry out, such as Guam or other US territories.
Even without arrests, extraditions and high profile judgments, Selden believes that the case has already done his job. Send a message to the victims that their losses are being taken seriously.
“Crypto Crime is not abstract; it is not on the high seas,” said Selden. “It is affecting real people, real communities and the Department of Justice wants Americans to know that they have their backs.”
