The U.S. Department of the Treasury has placed sanctions on Funnull Technology Inc., a tech company based in the Philippines, which has been implicated in providing the infrastructure for hundreds of thousands of websites involved in pig butchering scams, according to a press release from the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).
OFAC also targeted Liu Lizhi, a Chinese national who serves as the administrator of Funnull Technology. The press release states that Funnull Technology has been directly linked to losses exceeding $200 million suffered by scam victims in the U.S., with each individual victim losing more than $150,000.
“Today’s action underscores our focus on disrupting the criminal enterprises, like Funnull, that enable these cyber scams and deprive Americans of their hard-earned savings,” said Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Michael Faulkender. “The United States is strongly committed to ensuring the continued growth of a legitimate, safe, and secure digital asset ecosystem, including the use of virtual currencies and similar technologies.”
Pig butchering schemes represent a category of crypto investment fraud where victims are manipulated over an extended period, drawing a parallel with how pigs are fattened for slaughter, before they are pressured into investing significant sums into deceitful crypto ventures. These scams often have romantic elements, starting with unsolicited messages, and are primarily orchestrated by criminal groups in Southeast Asia. Many of these operations exploit victims of human trafficking, effectively using them as forced labor in harsh conditions.
In 2024, OFAC had previously sanctioned Ly Yong Phat, a wealthy businessman from Cambodia, along with his various enterprises and hotels, for his involvement in pig butchering-related human trafficking and abuse.
According to OFAC, Funnull Technology supplies cybercriminals with IP addresses acquired in bulk from cloud service providers worldwide, facilitating the operation of scam platforms and other deleterious web content. These scams create websites that mimic legitimate sites, misleading victims into believing their investments are safe and trustworthy.
The OFAC press release notes that Liu was in possession of spreadsheets and other documentation detailing information about Funnull’s staff, their productivity, and tasks, which included allocating domain names to cybercriminals, targeting domains related to crypto investment fraud, phishing attacks, and online gambling.
By adding Funnull Technology and Liu Lizhi to the Specially Designated Nationals list (SDN), OFAC is prohibiting all U.S. persons—both citizens living abroad and residents within the U.S.—from engaging in any transactions with them.
