FILE: Exterior of the Edward J. Schwartz United States Courthouse in downtown San Diego. (FOX 5/KUSI)
SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — A man pleaded guilty in a federal courtroom in San Diego on Thursday to a multi-million dollar senior fraud and money laundering scheme.
Officials said Jiandong Chen, aka “Little Tiger,” participated in a $27 million scam that targeted more than 2,000 elderly victims across the U.S., including San Diego.
The scheme went on from 2021 to 2023 and targeted people in their 70s and 80s.
According to documents, Chen, a Chinese national, is one of five people who ran a scheme that impersonated banks, the government, tech support and used refund scams to defraud elderly victims.
The victims reportedly received emails, phone calls and pop-ups directing them to call a phone number, which belonged to a scam call center in India.
Once on the phone, the scammers used techniques like building trust, urgency and fear to get the victims to download remote software that would allow scammers to access their computers.
Another technique used by the scammers was to pretend to be a retailer offering a refund to the victims for an alleged unauthorized charge. While supposedly sending the refund, the scammers would say that they “over-refunded” money and ask the victims to send money back via wire transfer or cash in the mail.
Some of the people who participated in the scheme did in-person cash pickups from the victims as well, according to a Department of Justice news release.
In a YouTube video with 1.3 million views, Chen was confronted by streamer Trilogy Media for being part of a scam organization. The video says that Chen was under the impression he was picking up cash from an elderly person’s residence in Los Angeles.
In his plea agreement, Chen, 42, said he used fake driver’s licenses and IDs matching the names victims were provided to send their money to, which he then used to pick up at retail locations that accepted express mail packages.
Chen and his co-conspirators then used cryptocurrency to transfer the funds to travel to pick up cash packages in Southern California and Nevada, pay one another and transfer money to foreign counterparts.
Chen and four others were indicted in June 2025. In August of that year, federal agents conducted a “nationwide takedown” of the organization, and Chen was arrested in Los Angeles.
He is scheduled to be sentenced on June 26 and faces conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and conspiracy to launder monetary instruments charges.
The first carries a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison and a $1 million fine. The other charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a fine equal to twice the amount laundered or $500,000.
Click Here For The Original Source.
