On Friday, October 30, 2026, AOL reported that federal prosecutors have charged six people in connection with an alleged romance and cryptocurrency fraud scheme run from scam compounds in Madagascar, in which victims were lured through fake dating profiles to bogus NFT investment websites that drained their digital wallets.
The Justice Department announced the charges on October 27, 2026. Prosecutors allege that Malaysian national Chui Kok Wa led the operation. Five others, identified in an FBI affidavit as Gislen Neukeu, Shamusa Ninsiima, Clement Mugiraneza, Merveille Mudacumura, and Nicodemus Hingima Monyancha, are accused of working as participants. All six face wire fraud conspiracy allegations, and none has been convicted.
According to investigators, workers posed as women seeking relationships on dating platforms and built trust with Americans before steering some conversations to WhatsApp. There, the purported partners urged targets to invest in non-fungible tokens, or NFTs. Victims were then directed to websites that requested broad permissions over their cryptocurrency wallets.
The FBI identified 127 transactions involving 74 victim
The FBI identified 127 transactions involving 74 victim wallets, with estimated losses of 516,695.46 USDT. The Justice Department separately said approximately 800 victims were connected to the operation.
The affidavit describes a Greenbelt, Maryland, victim who reported losing $11,926.12. That person initially deposited about 900 USDT and saw an apparent $15 profit on the site, but a withdrawal attempt failed. Investigators traced two unauthorized transfers from the wallet to the same recipient address.
In a separate instance, a Maryland investor added 9,067.64 USDT to a wallet tied to an apparent NFT platform, and the funds vanished in an unauthorized transfer about 33 minutes later. A Portland, Oregon, victim also reported that tokens disappeared after connecting a wallet to another version of the purported marketplace.
An FBI investigator tested one of the sites,
An FBI investigator tested one of the sites, identified as inftchain.xyz, using a new MetaMask wallet. After the account was connected, a request from inftvault.com sought permission to spend USDT tokens. The affidavit says the authorization could have let a third party transfer an unlimited amount. Investigators identified several similarly branded domains, which were seized under an earlier federal court order, case 26-sz-53.
Evidence came partly from about 3,200 electronic devices seized from 13 suspected scam compounds. In August 2026, the FBI’s Honolulu Field Office traveled to Madagascar at the invitation of the country’s Ministry of Justice and National Police to help review the material. Malagasy authorities reported detaining approximately 400 people during the broader operation.
Phones attributed to Wa contained an employment contract requiring shifts from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. in Madagascar, matching U.S. daytime and evening hours. The contract listed an $800 monthly base salary, commissions of 3% to 6% on money brought in by newly recruited clients, penalties for missed targets, and deductions for workers who failed to recruit paying clients.
It also required employees to hand over passports
It also required employees to hand over passports for temporary custody. Other files included rosters, wallet addresses, salary records and disciplinary deductions, and the FBI alleged Wa’s accounts both received victim-linked funds and paid people on the staff lists.
Recovered scripts instructed workers to exchange photographs and arrange video calls before mentioning NFTs, invent believable details about daily life, and avoid pushing for investment too early. One passage explicitly described the approach as an “emotional scam.” Another document supplied a story about a husband’s leukemia diagnosis.
The affidavit also recounts three Brazilian witnesses who said they were moved from a Cambodian scam compound to Madagascar in May 2026. It cites a report by eight Madagascar attorneys who said they represented 25 detained African nationals, alleging abuse, intimidation and restrictions on leaving.
The FBI said it could not interview
The FBI said it could not interview the workers or substantiate the claims and noted information that might be inconsistent with coercion in some cases. The Justice Department obtained a material-witness warrant to interview 15 employees and called on Madagascar to cooperate and extradite the six defendants.
The Federal Trade Commission warns against crypto investment offers from people met only on dating apps or social media. MetaMask says disconnecting a site does not cancel smart-contract allowances; revoking may require an on-chain transaction and a fee.
Victims are advised to preserve wallet addresses, transaction hashes, website addresses, and chat records for the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center.
