CHARLOTTE, N.C. – U.S. Attorney Dena J. King announced today the civil forfeiture and return of cryptocurrency worth hundreds of thousands of dollars that was stolen from an older adult victimized by a government imposter scam. This is the latest public legal action by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in its ongoing efforts to combat fraudsters seeking to financially exploit the elderly.
According to allegations contained in the civil complaint, in August 2021, fraudsters likely operating from overseas contacted by telephone the victim, who is an elderly Asheville resident, claiming to be with the “Office of the Inspector General.” The fraudsters deceived the victim into believing his personal information had been used to facilitate a drug trafficking and money laundering scheme, and as a result all of the victim’s assets would be frozen. One of the imposters, who identified himself as Agent James Hoffman, told the victim that he was required to deposit funds into a secure government account until the government verified that the victim was not involved in criminal activity. The imposters further demanded all of the victim’s personal identifying information (PII) and details regarding his financial accounts.
According to the filed complaint, the imposters directed the victim to use hundreds of thousands of dollars of his retirement funds to purchase Bitcoin through Coinbase Global, Inc. (Coinbase). On August 31, 2021, 12.164699 Bitcoin, worth approximately…
