Drugs, money and guns are displayed Wednesday, April 19, 2023 at the Lee County SheriffÕs Office. Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno announced the arrests and confiscation of guns and drugs in Operation Deep Clean. 3 kg cocaine, 1/2 lbs. heroin,2 lbs. fentanyl, 5lbs. meth, 10 firearms and att least $ 33,000 was taken off the streets. Drugs9636
Los Angeles, California – A Los Angeles woman has been sentenced to more than two years in federal prison for her role in laundering millions of dollars stolen through elaborate “pig butchering” scams — a type of fraud that preys on trust, emotional connection, and the promise of easy money.
Li Liu, 27, a Chinese national living in Koreatown, was sentenced Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Fernando M. Olguin to 28 months in prison and admitted she moved about $3.5 million in scam proceeds through bank accounts, shipping centers, and in bulk cash pickups. She pleaded guilty in June to conspiracy to commit money laundering.
The schemes she helped facilitate followed a now-familiar pattern. Fraudsters connect with victims — often through dating apps, social media, or even an innocent-seeming wrong number text — and build rapport over weeks or months. Eventually, the relationship turns to investment opportunities. The victims are directed to convincing but fraudulent trading platforms, where their “investments” appear to grow quickly. Enticed by the apparent gains, they send more money. When they finally try to withdraw funds, they find the accounts empty, their money long gone.
Liu’s part in the operation began in September 2024, when she used a fake passport and other forged documents to open a bank account for a sham business called Ocean X Trading Ltd Inc. Over the next several months, scam victims wired funds to the account. In just one month — October 2024 — Liu transferred more than $83,000 to a company in Hong Kong.
The conspiracy didn’t rely solely on electronic transfers. Prosecutors said Liu and her co-conspirators, including 28-year-old Shaui Lyu of Koreatown, also arranged for victims to send bulk cash through the mail. Using forged IDs, Liu opened accounts at mail receiving facilities, then retrieved packages stuffed with currency. She photographed the contents and forwarded the images to Lyu before consolidating the money and moving it along. In April 2025, over just two days, six cash-filled packages arrived at one Koreatown location.
Lyu’s phone contained dozens of photos of bulk cash and more than 100 images of serialized U.S. dollar bills, which were used as a kind of handshake between couriers and victims to confirm identities. Couriers also transported large sums in person — in one case, more than $200,000 from Dallas to Los Angeles.
When authorities searched Liu’s residence, they found $104,000 in cash that hadn’t yet been moved, along with 27 uncollected packages containing another $285,000 in cash and $87,000 in gold bars.
Lyu, who also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering, is scheduled to be sentenced in September and faces up to 20 years in prison. Prosecutors say the case is another reminder that “pig butchering” scams are far from victimless — and that the networks behind them operate with the efficiency of organized crime.
