Two individuals have been indicted for allegedly laundering over $43 million in "pig-butchering" investment fraud proceeds.

Odaily reported that according to the announcement from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York, Zhuo Ying Chen and Hao Jie Zhang were formally indicted in Brooklyn federal court on July 16 on charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering.

Prosecutors allege that between 2020 and 2022, the two managed a money laundering network of more than 10 individuals in Queens and Brooklyn, New York. They used approximately 45 shell companies and 140 corporate bank accounts to transfer at least $43 million in proceeds from "pig-butchering" investment scams to accounts in China.

This case was jointly investigated by the Homeland Security Investigations, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation division, and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. If convicted, each defendant faces a maximum of 20 years in prison.