Reported by James Reddick

A California man has sued three banks for alleged “willful blindness” in allowing criminals to open accounts used to steal nearly $1 million from him in a cryptocurrency investment scam.  

According to his attorneys, the plaintiff, Ken Liem, was approached by a man on LinkedIn in June 2023 about opportunities to invest in crypto. Over the next six months, Liem made four wire transfers via Wells Fargo worth $986,000 to accounts in the names of three Hong Kong-registered entities.  

Liem realized his purported investments were a sham when one of his cryptocurrency accounts was “frozen” for money laundering purposes. He was also asked to make a supposed tax payment to the Internal Revenue Service in order to withdraw his money, a typical tactic by scammers to wring out as much profit as they can from a victim before vanishing with the funds.  

The three banks, according to the lawsuit, were of no help afterward. 

Such pig-butchering scams are estimated to have resulted in victims losing tens of billions of dollars as industrial-scale operations run by organized crime groups have ramped up throughout Southeast Asia. 

While such lawsuits against financial institutions from scam victims are rare, they are not without precedent.

Read full report: https://therecord.media/pig-butchering-sues-banks-know-your-customer-rules