The US SEC sued five companies for allegedly carrying out crypto "pig killing" scams

BlockBeats reported that on September 21, the U.S. SEC has filed lawsuits against three individuals and five companies, accusing them of operating a "pig killing" scam. The two lawsuits filed on Tuesday are the SEC's first enforcement actions against this crypto scam, just one day before the U.S. House Financial Services Committee is preparing to hold a hearing on the "pig killing" scam.

“Relationship-based investment scams, including those involving crypto asset investments, pose a significant risk to retail investors, and the threat is growing rapidly as these scams become more popular among scammers,” said Gurbir S. Grewal, Director of the SEC’s Enforcement Division, in a press statement. “In both cases, we allege that the scammers created fake crypto ecosystems and presented investors with false information. Our charges remind the public to be extremely wary of investment opportunities promoted by strangers on social media.”

The SEC’s complaint against the alleged crypto trading platform NanoBit alleges that participants in the scheme — including three U.S. residents named in the lawsuit, 28-year-old Jiajie Liu of Los Angeles, California, 29-year-old Fei Liao of San Gabriel, California, and 26-year-old Hua Zhao of Flushing, New York — worked together to run a fraudulent scheme that defrauded at least 18 investors of nearly $1 million in crypto assets and fiat currency.

A separate lawsuit against another fake crypto trading platform called CoinW6 alleges that unnamed participants in the scheme defrauded at least 11 investors of $2.2 million between July 2022 and December 2023.