Philippine Firm Blacklisted by U.S. for Enabling Over $200M Crypto Scam
The U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has imposed sanctions on Funnull Technology Inc., a company based in the Philippines, for allegedly providing technical support to a widespread cryptocurrency fraud operation targeting Americans.
According to the May 29 announcement, Funnull was instrumental in operating infrastructure for hundreds of thousands of fraudulent websites tied to “pig butchering” schemes — scams in which victims are manipulated over time into making fake cryptocurrency investments. Losses linked to Funnull’s operations have reportedly surpassed $200 million in the U.S. alone, with the average victim losing over $150,000.
Funnull is accused of purchasing large volumes of IP addresses from global cloud service providers and reselling them to scammers. These addresses were used to host phishing sites and fake investment platforms. The company is reportedly led by Chinese national Liu Lizhi, who coordinated these services and the technical setup.
The FBI has connected Funnull to the majority of fraudulent crypto investment websites targeting U.S. users. Officials say the company played a key role in maintaining the infrastructure that made these scams so pervasive and difficult to trace.
To stay ahead of takedown efforts, Funnull allegedly employed domain generation algorithms (DGAs) to churn out numerous domain names with minor variations. This allowed scammers to quickly replace sites that were taken offline. The firm also supplied templates that helped criminals impersonate legitimate financial institutions, further deceiving victims.
In 2024, the company reportedly hijacked a software developer’s code repository, inserting malicious redirects that sent users from genuine websites to scam and gambling pages, some of which have ties to Chinese money laundering networks.
These developments reflect the growing sophistication of crypto-enabled cybercrime, which continues to evolve despite increased global enforcement. As previously reported, Australia’s ASIC has cracked down on similar schemes, recently shutting down 95 companies involved in crypto fraud.
