30-5-2025 – The United States Treasury has imposed sanctions on Funnull Technology Inc., a company based in the Philippines, accused of enabling a sprawling network of digital currency frauds commonly referred to as “pig butchering” scams. The Treasury alleges that Funnull, alongside its suspected administrator, 40-year-old Chinese national Liu Lizhi, has been instrumental in supplying internet infrastructure to cybercriminals. Liu, reportedly linked to addresses in Shanghai and Ganzhou, could not be reached for comment, and efforts to contact Funnull yielded no response. A search for the company in the Philippines’ corporate registry proved fruitless.
These so-called pig butchering schemes, which lure victims into fictitious cryptocurrency investments, have ballooned into a multi-billion-dollar criminal enterprise, often underpinned by organised crime and human trafficking. Originating in China, the scams have spread globally, with fraudsters exploiting sham websites to deceive their targets. According to a Thursday statement from the Treasury, Funnull allegedly facilitated these operations by acquiring vast quantities of internet protocol addresses from other providers and funnelling them to illicit actors.
Further casting a shadow over Funnull’s operations, cybersecurity researchers at Silent Push earlier this year connected the company to a web of fraudulent sites, some tied to suspected gambling and money laundering activities. Blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis has reported that revenues from pig butchering scams have soared to unprecedented levels, likely amplified by scammers’ use of advanced generative algorithms. These tools enable fraudsters to craft more convincing pitches and engage with multiple victims simultaneously, supercharging the scams’ reach and impact.
