A Chisago County business owner was the target of a “pig butchering” cryptocurrency investment scheme that cost him hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to a law enforcement investigation.
The 46-year-old man, who lives near Cambridge and works in construction, reported to the Sheriff’s Office that he was out $500,000 as of mid-November, according to a search warrant affidavit filed in District Court made public Thursday.
Sheriff’s Capt. Andrew Mahowald told the Minnesota Star Tribune that the digital currency investigation remains active with no arrests so far.
Mahowald said the man was reeled in by a scam known as “pig butchering,” which involves “situations where scammers build trust with victims and fatten their accounts with fake profits before freezing or liquidating the funds deposited by the victim.”
The filing asked the court to clear the way for investigators to collect bank records associated with four transactions tied to the suspected scam. According to the court filing:
In late June, the man received a text message from someone who went by the name Camila Almeida and lived in Los Angeles. During their conversations, the man was asked whether he was interested in investing in cryptocurrency.
The man was directed to an app called Meibit, and he made his first deposit in July.
On Nov. 18, the man received an email explaining that “his account had been frozen due to insider trading, and he needed to send an additional $240,000 to unlock his account.” .
