The U.S. Treasury Department recently announced that it has imposed sanctions on a China-funded enterprise based in the Philippines—Pano Network Technologies and its executive Liu Lizhi (transliterated), accusing them of providing key technical support for the "Pig Butchering" scam, causing economic losses of over $200 million to U.S. citizens.
The Treasury Department pointed out that the company purchased IP addresses in bulk from several international cloud service providers and used domain name generation technology to build disguised websites, providing scam groups with fake investment platforms, online gambling systems, and web page templates as "customized services," significantly increasing the concealment and scale of the scam activities. Some platforms are also suspected of being used for money laundering.
"Pano Technologies not only provided strong technical support for the scam activities but also lowered the threshold for committing crimes through platform tools, allowing scam websites to go online quickly and covertly," the Treasury Department stated in the announcement.
"Pig Butchering" is a scam originating in Asia and particularly rampant in Southeast Asia. Criminals usually disguise their identities, establish emotional relationships through social platforms, and then induce victims to invest in fake cryptocurrency or financial projects. Once the victims invest a significant amount of money, the perpetrators disappear with the funds.
According to U.S. statistics, in reported "Pig Butchering" cases, the average loss per victim is as high as $150,000, with total losses exceeding $200 million, and the actual number of victims and the amount involved may be even higher.
This sanction action is seen as the latest move by the U.S. government to combat transnational telecommunications and cyber fraud. The U.S. Treasury Department stated that it will continue to cooperate with international law enforcement agencies to track down institutions and individuals involved in such crimes. Liu Lizhi and his affiliated companies' assets in the U.S. will be frozen, and U.S. citizens and businesses are also prohibited from conducting any business dealings with them.
