A Chinese national has been sentenced to 28 months in federal prison for laundering approximately $3.5 million stolen from victims of investment scams, known as “pig butchering” schemes. Li Liu, 27, also known as “Qiunan Li” and “Xiaoying Zhao,” was sentenced by United States District Judge Fernando M. Olguin in Los Angeles.
Liu pleaded guilty on June 4 to one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.
According to authorities, “pig butchering” fraud schemes involve scammers approaching victims through dating services, social media, or unsolicited messages. After gaining the victim’s trust, the scammer introduces an investment opportunity. Victims are then directed to fraudulent investment platforms where they are persuaded to transfer money. The platforms often show false gains on investments, leading victims to send more funds before ultimately being unable to recover their money.
In September 2024, Liu used a fake passport under the alias “Xia Ran” and other documents to open a bank account for a sham company named Ocean X Trading Ltd Inc., maintaining access until April 2025. Multiple victims wired funds into this account; during October 2024 alone, Liu transferred $83,461 from it to a Hong Kong-based company called Alamo Tech Ltd.
Liu and her co-conspirators also used fake IDs—including passports and California driver’s licenses—to open accounts at mail receiving facilities and pick up packages containing bulk cash sent by wire fraud victims. In March 2025, using another alias and business name (Sunny South Trading Inc.), Liu opened an account at a Koreatown shipping company where six packages with bulk cash were received over two days in April 2025. She picked up these packages—photographing their contents—and consolidated the money before sending it to co-defendant Shaui Lyu and others.
Authorities found that Lyu possessed about 46 images of bulk currency on his cellphone—many sent by Liu—estimated at roughly $3.5 million laundered through the scheme.
The conspiracy also involved couriers transporting large sums of cash between cities such as Dallas and Los Angeles. To verify identities during pickups, couriers and victims would each display images of serialized U.S. dollar bills corresponding with each transaction; Lyu’s phone contained over 100 such images representing different pickups.
Liu admitted in her plea agreement that she was paid for laundering these funds. When law enforcement searched her residence they recovered $104,000 in cash linked to fraud victims that had not yet been distributed further among conspirators. They also found 27 unopened packages containing around $285,000 in cash and $87,000 worth of gold bars.
Co-defendant Shaui Lyu—an illegal alien from China—also pleaded guilty on June 4 to one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and faces up to 20 years in federal prison at his sentencing scheduled for September 4.
Homeland Security Investigations led the investigation into this case.
“Assistant United States Attorney Erik M. Silber, Chief of the Post-Conviction and Special Litigation Section,” prosecuted the case.
