The U.S. Treasury Department has imposed sanctions on a Philippine tech company and its alleged administrator, accusing them of providing services to thousands of cryptocurrency scam websites.
The Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) stated on May 29 that Funnull Technology is linked to most of the cryptocurrency scam websites reported to the FBI, with victims losing over $200 million.
According to OFAC's investigation, Funnull purchased IP addresses in bulk from cloud service providers and sold them to scammers, enabling them to host and operate clone websites of legitimate investment platforms, thereby deceiving victims and stealing their cryptocurrencies.
OFAC noted that in a 2024 case, Funnull purchased a code repository for web developers and modified it to redirect visitors of legitimate websites to scam sites and online gambling platforms.
OFAC emphasized, "These services not only make it easier for cybercriminals to impersonate trusted brands when creating scam websites, but also allow them to quickly switch to different domain names and IP addresses when legitimate providers attempt to shut down these sites."
The alleged administrator of Funnull, Liu Lizhi, a Chinese national managing the company's employees, has also been added to OFAC's Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons (SDN) list as part of the sanctions.
In general, being placed on the SDN list means that the individual's assets in the U.S. will be frozen, and any financial transactions or business dealings with them by U.S. persons are illegal; violators may face civil and criminal penalties.
OFAC also sanctioned two wallet addresses allegedly associated with Funnull, with blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis stating in a report on May 29 that these wallet addresses are likely "used to receive payments from cybercriminals."
Chainalysis pointed out, "Additionally, these addresses show indirect contact with various types of scams and domain management infrastructure providers."
Chainalysis claims that Funnull is a key player in a network known as Triad Nexus, which includes over 200,000 unique hostnames associated with investment scams and fraudulent trading applications.
As a result of the sanctions, all individuals within the U.S. are now prohibited from interacting with Liu Lizhi and any property and business interests owned by Funnull that exceed 50%, with violators potentially facing civil or criminal penalties.
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Original article: “U.S. Sanctions Philippine Tech Company, Accusing It of Aiding Cryptocurrency Scams”
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