A San Gabriel Valley man was sentenced Monday to four years and three months in federal prison for helping launder more than $36.9 million stolen through a digital asset investment scam carried out from Cambodia.
Shengsheng He, 39, of La Puente, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner, who also ordered him to pay more than $26.8 million in restitution, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
He pleaded guilty in April in Los Angeles federal court to one count of conspiracy to operate an illegal money transmitting business.
“This defendant will spend years in federal prison for participating in a conspiracy in which victims lost tens of millions of dollars, starting with the simple step of responding to unsolicited messages on their phones,” Acting U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli of the Central District of California said in a statement.
“The public should always remember to be vigilant and wary of strangers marketing promising investment opportunities. Your retirement fund or children’s college money may depend on it.”
According to court documents, He was part of an international criminal network that induced U.S. victims to transfer funds to accounts controlled by co-conspirators, who laundered the proceeds through U.S. shell companies, international bank accounts, and digital asset wallets.
Prosecutors said accomplices living overseas would contact U.S. victims through unsolicited social media interactions, telephone calls, text messages, and online dating services. The scammers would tell victims that their investments were appreciating in value when the funds had actually been stolen.
More than $36.9 million in bilked money was transferred from U.S. bank accounts controlled by the co-conspirators to a single account at Deltec Bank in the Bahamas, according to the DOJ.
Eight people have pleaded guilty in the case so far, including Daren Li, a national of China and St. Kitts and Nevis who has been in custody since April 2024, and Lu Zhang, a Chinese national illegally in the United States who managed a network of U.S.-based money launderers. Li and Zhang each pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering last year.