Chinese Woman Posed as Crypto Investor and Defrauded American Pensioners 0 7

In addition to her prison sentence, she will have to compensate her victims for damages amounting to approximately $770,000.

More than $684,000 in the defendant's accounts is to be confiscated for the benefit of the United States.

"You are like a mother to me"

As the court found, from November 2020 to January 2022, Sae Man Yu Inos, hiding under the name Yuki, befriended elderly women on the islands of Saipan and Guam, and then ingratiated herself with them. She posed as a representative of a wealthy Chinese family, claiming to own several businesses and successfully invest in Bitcoin.

The fraudster treated the women to expensive dinners, gave gifts, and boasted about profits from cryptocurrency investments. To endear herself to her interlocutors, she shared fabricated stories about personal problems and emphasized the importance of friendship, often repeating the phrase "You are like a mother to me."

Dozens of Victims in Retirement Age

Yuki then asked the women for money and offered to buy Bitcoins, according to the case materials.

After moving from the Mariana Islands to the mainland United States, the young woman found new victims in Washington and California. According to law enforcement, Yuki's scam affected "dozens of victims"—mostly elderly individuals.

Yuki is not alone in her criminal endeavors. Recently, 22-year-old Evan Tangeman from California was sentenced to 70 months in prison—nearly six years.

The young American helped accomplices launder stolen cryptocurrency worth approximately $263 million, the U.S. Department of Justice reported. The stolen money was used for a lavish lifestyle, luxury cars, and elite housing.