First NFT lawsuit filed in $2.2M fake job crypto scheme
The first-ever NFT-based lawsuit notification
New York Attorney General Letitia James will become the first government regulator to issue a lawsuit notice via NFTs sent to cryptocurrency wallets used for stealing funds.
The landmark case involves a $2.2 million fraud scheme targeting New York residents and others across the U.S. with fake remote job offers.
Jobseekers received text messages offering positions with “numerous benefits and flexible requirements.” To secure employment, candidates were required to pay a registration bonus in stablecoins like USDT or USDC and cover part of a mandatory training program.
A scammer, posing as a trainer, guided victims in setting up wallets on the LBank cryptocurrency platform, instructed them on purchasing and transferring stablecoins for “product reviews,” and, in some cases, proposed handling everything in exchange for USD sent via fiat payment systems.
In reality, all tools for the fake company Brilliant Staffing were hosted on a fraudulent website designed to defraud jobseekers.
Funds recovered, perpetrators still unknown
The investigation led to voluntary cooperation from Tether to freeze stolen USDT and a court order to freeze misappropriated USDC. These measures allow for the possibility of returning funds to victims after judicial approval.
While the identities of the fraud's organizers remain unknown, the lawsuit outlines a sophisticated network that lured victims with promises of high-paying remote jobs.
According to the New York Attorney General’s plan, actual wallet owners involved will receive NFT-based lawsuit notifications linking them to a prosecution webpage containing all case filings.
“No other state or federal regulator has filed a lawsuit using this method before,” claims the New York Attorney General’s office.
A federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Washington has indicted Francye Obando Pinillo, a pastor of a Spanish-speaking church, on 26 counts of fraud, alleging that he orchestrated a cryptocurrency scheme that drained millions of dollars from his congregation's wallets.
