CFTC Charges Man With Fraud in ‘Pig Butchering’ Crypto Romance Scam

The action, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, alleges that Cunwen Zhu, a California businessman, tricked at least 29 customers out of more than $1.3 million allocated for digital asset commodity and forex trading through his company, Justby International Auctions, between April 2021 and March 2022. Instead of investing customers’ funds in crypto and forex exchanges, Zhu collected the money for his personal use, transferring the majority of the funds to bank accounts, digital wallets and digital asset trading platforms controlled by those he employed in his alleged scheme.