ExclusiveAmericans Lose Billions to Chinese Crypto Scams

Welcome to China In Focus. I'm Tiffany Meyer. Our top story. Americans lose $10 billion a year to Chinese crypto fraud schemes. U.S. authorities work to seize and return stolen funds linked to scams run by Chinese transnational criminal organizations. Three Chinese scientists now off the hook after Beijing intervenes in a biological smuggling case in the U.S. Born through surrogacy in the U.S., granted American citizenship, then raised in Communist China, and eventually eligible to vote in American elections. An investigation exposes the story of children born in at least 100 surrogacy centers in California operated by Chinese nationals. A military conflict looming in Iran as hopes for a diplomatic resolution fade. China, a key partner of Iran, on Friday urging its citizens to leave the country as soon as possible. Beijing's influence in South America continues to recede. Panama forces a Hong Kong company out of the Panama Canal. Americans lose $27 million a day to Chinese crypto fraud schemes. The U.S. attorney's office announced Thursday that it has now frozen and seized more than $580 million in cryptocurrency. The crypto is tied to so-called pig butchering scams conducted by Chinese transnational criminal organizations. These operations target people in many countries, including Americans, through social media and text messages. Scammers build trust and convince victims to invest through fake cryptocurrency platforms. Authorities estimate Americans lose nearly $10 billion a year to these schemes, or $27 million a day. The enforcement action was carried out by the U.S.'s Scam Center Strike Force. The task force was formed last November. The criminal networks operate in Southeast Asia, including Burma, Cambodia and Laos. The DOJ says workers at these scam compounds are often victims of crime themselves, trafficked and forced to work under armed supervision. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro says her office will now move to forfeit the frozen cryptocurrency through the courts and return as much of the money as possible to victims. Three Chinese scientists are off the hook after the Justice Department charged them with smuggling biological materials into the country. Their lawyers say the Chinese regime helped to tip the scale. Entity's David Lam reports. In a criminal case against several Chinese nationals, American defense attorneys say the Chinese regime intervened and helped get the case dismissed. The Justice Department charged three Chinese scientists with smuggling materials, mostly tiny transparent round worms, from China into the U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi says the government must be vigilant when foreign nationals try to advance a malicious agenda. The three were in jail for more than three months while the case was pending, but a judge suddenly dismissed the charges on February 5th. The scientists then traveled back to China. Their American defense attorneys say they were told there was intervention by the Chinese consulate in Chicago and that its involvement, quote, moved the needle. One attorney said, quote, We get this phone call saying China is negotiating with the U.S. over these three students. Serious talks. According to the DOJ, all three men were research scholars holding visas and were temporarily researching at the University of Michigan Laboratory of Xinzhongshu, commonly referred to as the Shanshu Laboratory. DOJ says that in 2024 and 2025, two of the individuals received the materials, which had been shipped from China, and that the university initiated an investigation in which the three refused to participate, at which point they were terminated by the school. David Lam, NTD News. The U.S. Attorney's Office in Detroit said it would not comment on China's role or the government's retreat. Senators Tim Scott and Tom Cotton are calling on the Department of Justice to investigate surrogacy centers operated by foreign nationals. Author and investigative reporter Peter Schweitzer says he found 107 Chinese-owned surrogacy agencies in Southern California alone. These agencies reportedly catered to wealthy Chinese clients, some with alleged ties to Chinese officials. The children are born as U.S. citizens, then flown to China and raised under the influence of the Chinese Communist Party. As Americans, those children would eventually be eligible to vote in U.S. elections and could pursue positions that advance the CCP's interests. Multiple American surrogacy agencies are reported to have about 40 to 50 percent of their clientele from China. In one case, a Chinese billionaire is reported to have fathered more than 100 American-born children through this process. The United States and Iran are sliding rapidly towards military conflict as hope fades for a diplomatic solution to their standoff over Tehran's nuclear program. That's according to officials on both sides. Tensions appear to be reaching a new level. On Friday, China urged its citizens to leave the country as soon as possible. Typically, when the risk of war in a country becomes imminent, nations that are friendly with a potential adversary withdraw their citizens first. A government at war is unlikely to give much assistance to citizens of countries aligned with the enemy. The U.S., Canada, India and some European countries have already taken such steps. But among Iran's key partners, including Russia, North Korea and China, there had been no public evacuation advisory. That is, until China issued one on Friday. China's decision to tell its citizens to leave is an obvious sign that tensions may be escalating to a new level. Neither Russia nor China has a mutual defense pact with Iran that legally obliges them to use military force to defend Iran if it's attacked by other countries. Russia, China and Iran agreed to a trilateral strategic pact last month. It only aimed at strengthening political and economic cooperation. The local office of Hong Kong company CK Hutchinson in Panama was searched by law enforcement. Employees were asked to leave and were threatened with criminal prosecution. This comes after authorities expelled the company from the Panama Canal on Monday. The canal becoming a centerpiece in the influence battle between Beijing and Washington. Panama on Monday published a Supreme Court ruling from January that canceled key port contracts held by a subsidiary of CK Hutchinson. The publication ultimately annulled the company's right to operate the ports. The Trump administration has pushed Panama to make this move as the Panama Canal is a strategically important asset to the U.S. A Hong Kong court sentenced the father of a wanted pro-democracy activist to eight months in prison on Thursday. That's after he attempted to terminate his daughter's insurance policy and withdraw the funds. It's another case related to the city's national security law imposed by the Chinese Communist Party. Seen here arriving at the courts two weeks ago with his son, 69-year-old Kwok Ian Tsang was found guilty under a city law known as Article 23. That expands on the Beijing-imposed national security law criminalizing any attempt to deal with directly or indirectly any funds or other financial assets or economic resources belonging to an esconder. Kwok is the first person in the city to be charged and convicted with the offense. So basically my dad currently is being convicted of attempting to deal with finances, assets that are owned by me. His daughter Anna Kwok helps lead the Washington-based advocacy group Hong Kong Democracy Council and is one of the 34 overseas activists wanted by Hong Kong National Security Police. She spoke to Reuters in Washington last week. Basically I was you know a little kid still learning how to say that and he got this insurance policy under his name so the policy has always been owned by him but because I was you know on the policy as an insured or beneficiary I don't even know. The Hong Kong government is saying that he's dealing with my finances and therefore he's being convicted. Her father was accused of trying to withdraw funds totaling around $11,000 from that policy. Magistrate Andy Cheung said Kwok's case was a serious one under the national security law and had nothing to do with family ties. Anna says given the chance she would apologize to her father. I would give him a hug for sure. Asian dads are not very known for showing affection with hugs and I realized this year I actually I don't think I've ever hugged my dad since I became an adult so that would be something I do but at the same time I would also apologize for yeah putting him in this situation in this position. Coming up, a new book, Killed to Order, exposes what researchers are calling a horrific crime linked to the Chinese Communist Party. Jan Jekielek, host of American Thought Leaders, traces two decades of growing evidence of forced organ harvesting. He had a patient who had been waiting for a heart transplant for a long time and one day his patient told him you know and I was chilled to the bones as Jakob was like we're counting this to me in two weeks he was going to get a scheduled heart transplant and from the perspective of you know Jakob had been the head of the Israeli Transplant Association at one point right he said that's impossible there's no way because you would know when someone's going to be killed but the guy went and got the transplant and came back to Israel. Communist Cuba says it opened return fire on an American boat killing four and injuring six. A national security analyst weighs in. Welcome back to China In Focus. I'm Tiffany Meyer. A shocking new book details what researchers are calling a horrific crime by the Chinese Communist Party. In Killed to Order, host of American Thought Leaders Jan Jekielek traces what he describes as two decades of mounting evidence pointing to a state-run transplant system targeting prisoners of conscience and religious minorities. NTD's Dana Monaghan has more on the book. I think it has deep profound national security implications. Jan Jekielek host of Epoch TV's American Thought Leaders and the Washington Bureau Chief of the Epoch Times has followed for 20 years what he believes is the Chinese Communist Party's business of forced organ harvesting. He said the regime is killing people of faith ethnic minorities and anyone else that may deem an enemy of the state in order to harvest their organs for profit and some of their clients come from countries such as the United States but they're being coerced into silence or complicity. The mounting evidence on the topic has been compiled in a book he wrote called Killed to Order. We're working with a regime that has killed to order as a standard part of its operating methods. In an interview with Voice of America last week Jekielek explained how he believes the regime built out a system where anyone around the world can pay six figures and receive a new organ in two weeks. The average wait time is usually counted in years. You have to be able to push coercive power through into a population. You have to be able to propagandize the population heavily basically to believe to dehumanize one a group of people that you're going to use for this okay and the second part is you have to be able to have the power to incarcerate a huge group of people maybe a million. He said the CCP achieved this in the early 2000s after it had incarcerated large numbers of Chinese citizens who were members of the spiritual group Falun Gong. This was a spiritual discipline. The government estimate was that 70 to 100 million people were doing it. A group of people practicing truthfulness, compassion, forbearance were suddenly you know on the most wanted list. Zheng Zemin was the Chinese leader involved at the outset of this massive campaign. He wanted the group eradicated. Jekielek said the regime pushed massive propaganda into the Chinese population. The moment that you start believing that someone is less than human that allows you to do terrible things. This is why genocides happen. Jekielek said there's evidence of early experimentation on Uyghurs in Xinjiang before Falun Gong and now he believes massive numbers of Uyghurs are also being detained in labor camps and possibly subjected to forced organ harvesting. Jekielek talks more about his new book including the regime's organ harvesting industry and evidence contradicting its official line in an upcoming interview with Rob Schneider on American Thought Leaders. I already knew what the Chinese Communist Party was capable of broadly but I still didn't want to accept that this could be happening because it's so extreme. You can watch Jekielek's full interview with Rob Schneider Saturday on NTD or Epoch TV. Arlene Richards, NTD News. Communist Cuba says it opened return fire on American boat killing four and injuring six. Secretary of State Marco Rubio says they are working to verify the details themselves. For analysis on the boat incident and U.S. oil sanctions on the country, NTD's Kerry Dunst was joined by national security analyst Rebecca Grant, vice president of the Lexington Institute. Secretary of State Marco Rubio describing the boat incident as highly unusual and Florida's AEG there saying that Cuba has already changed their story multiple times. What do you think is actually happening in this incident? Well this is highly unusual. There have over the years been instances of the Cubans shooting first and asking questions later but this story just gets crazier with every turn. We learned I think that the boat was stolen from the Florida Keys. It's not a large boat as Representative Jiménez told us and the Cubans of course are trying to make this out to be some mini invasion or terrorist act but that's just ridiculous. I expect to see Florida and of course the State Department really trying to get to the bottom of who these people were, what happened and then of course what has happened to the rest of the crew that may still be in Cuba. It is however a crazy incident. I think one thing is very clear that this was not backed or planned in any way by the U.S. government. Now this happens amidst a whole bunch of issues. One being of course the Ukraine-Russia negotiations. Russia speaking out on this issue you would think that they have no knowledge of it being very far from the Caribbean area but they did bring up the humanitarian issues of Cuban citizens. Where might Russia fit in to the Cuban regime's attempt to survive now that the U.S. has essentially reasserted the Monroe Doctrine and sanctioned all of the oil and you know really put the screws if you will to the communist regime? Yes well that's Russia for you. Any chance to jump on the propaganda and of course they know nothing about what was going on. I mean Secretary of State Rubio was actually in the Caribbean when this incident occurred but they'll lose no chance to put out their propaganda and sadly you know some people are kind of believing this. The Cuban government wants this narrative that the oil sanctions are oppressive and it's not humanitarian. You know I think President Trump and Secretary Rubio see the oil sanctions as part of the economic pressure on Cuba. That terrible regime you know a hundred miles from the best economy the best country in the world the United States and there is Cuba continuing to suffer. Now Rubio has also made pretty clear in his remarks after this incident that you know there's not military action imminent. They are trying to do an economic squeeze on the Cuban regime and as you said that includes oil. Cuba was getting about 100,000 barrels a day of oil and now that has greatly greatly diminished and they're out of aviation gas jet fuel. And Rebecca to pan back a bit since you are an expert of course in matters specific to Russia as well as foreign policy in general. After Maduro's capture both Cuba and Iran clearly weakened by the U.S. sanctions that have been happening and then you take away the Venezuelan oil. India also agreed to stop buying Russian gas products. How does that put pressure on Russia and potentially China in terms of the peace process with Ukraine? Well putting oil pressure on Russia is what you know everybody wants. The administration would love to see that. Unfortunately they have to drive the price per barrel down pretty low and Russia's done a good job of continuing to ship oil through its shadow fleet. Venezuela was involved in that. Iran was involved in that as well as they shipped their oil by us partly by a shadow fleet that China purchases. So it kind of all does come back to China. The major purchaser there had been for Venezuela still is for Russia still is for Iran. It's really hard to put sanctions and squeeze Russia when China is continuing to backstop everything. And China is also continuing to purchase from Iran and to ship Iran chemicals to build ballistic missile rocket fuel. Pretty tough. And the song kind of remains the same ultimately with Iran and their negotiations. Cuba you know these regimes certainly don't cede control. What do you think happens over the next month or two as it relates to those two particular regimes. And they're similar in that they've both been around a long time. They're terrible for their people. You can't imagine two worse economies than Cuba and Iran. But they are basically like mafia families. They're doing this to stay in power. We hate to see it. And that's why this complex economic pressure is there to try to get to a solution without military action. But certainly President Trump is ready for military action against Iran to pressure that regime to agree to get rid of its nuclear enriched fuel that it shouldn't keep and to limit its programs. If that doesn't work I think we see a strike with Cuba. I think right now the policy is to continue the economic squeeze. But you know that a change in Cuba is a high high priority for Secretary Marco Rubio. And Rebecca just in our last 30 seconds your thoughts on the upcoming meetings. Obviously Whitkoff and Kushner met with Ukraine yesterday. But what might be the next material milestone toward any peace in Russia. Whitkoff and Kushner will keep at it. It's still about a land agreement. There's a great economic prosperity deal for Ukraine in the offing. So Ukraine will say yes but it's all about getting Putin to say yes to a ceasefire. And sadly Putin loves that war. More to come on that of course. We always appreciate your analysis. Thanks Rebecca Grant. Thank you. That's all for today's China in Focus. I'm Tiffany Meyer. If you have any feedback on the show or have something you'd like to see us cover send us an email at China in Focus and NTD.com. We'd love to hear from you. For on the clock original news coverage visit us at NTD.com or download our NTD app. Thanks for watching. See you soon.