OFAC Sanctions Philippines-Based Tech Company For Facilitating Pig Butchering Schemes

According to OFAC, Funnull Technology Inc. provides machine infrastructure for “hundreds of thousands” of pig butchering websites.

Jun 5, 2025, 8:39 p.m.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury has sanctioned a Philippines-based tech company, Funnull Technology Inc., for providing the machine infrastructure for “hundreds of thousands of websites” progressive successful pig butchering scams, according to a Thursday property merchandise from the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC).

OFAC besides sanctioned Liu Lizhi, a Chinese nationalist moving arsenic Funnull Technology’s administrator. According to the property release, Funnull Technology has straight facilitated much than $200 cardinal successful losses from scam victims successful the U.S. Of those victims, the mean losses per idiosyncratic were implicit $150,000.

“Today’s enactment underscores our absorption connected disrupting the transgression enterprises, similar Funnull, that alteration these cyber scams and deprive Americans of their hard-earned savings,” said Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Michael Faulkender successful the property release. “The United States is powerfully committed to ensuring the continued maturation of a legitimate, safe, and unafraid integer plus ecosystem, including the usage of virtual currencies and akin technologies.”

Pig butchering schemes are a benignant of crypto concern scam successful which the unfortunate is groomed implicit a agelong play of time, akin to a pig being fattened up earlier the slaughter, earlier being pressed to lend ample amounts of wealth into a fraudulent crypto investment. The scams are often but not ever romanticist successful nature, and often statesman with an unsolicited text. The bulk of the scams are organized by transgression organizations successful Southeast Asia, who usage victims of labour trafficking — fundamentally slaves, kept successful unspeakable conditions — to transportation retired the scams.

Last year, OFAC sanctioned a affluent Cambodian businessman, Ly Yong Phat — on with respective of his businesses and hotels — for his relation successful pig butchering-associated quality trafficking and torture.

Read more: US Treasury Sanctions Cambodian Tycoon With Ties to Pig Butchering Scams

According to OFAC, Funnull Technology supplies cybercriminals with IP addresses, purchased successful bulk from unreality work providers worldwide, which are past utilized to big scam platforms and different malicious web content. These websites and domain names are crafted to mimic trusted websites, tricking the victims into believing their investments are legitimate.

Liu allegedly “possessed spreadsheets and different documents containing accusation astir Funnull’s employees, their performance, and their advancement connected tasks,” OFAC’s property merchandise said. “These tasks included assigning domain names to cybercriminals, including domains associated with virtual currency concern fraud, phishing scams, and online gambling sites.”

In placing Funnull Technology and Liu connected the Specially Designated Nationals database (SDN), OFAC is barring each U.S. persons – including citizens overseas and residents surviving successful America – from transacting with them successful immoderate way.

Cheyenne Ligon