CLEVELAND, Ohio - The U.S. government is taking the final legal step to take ownership of $325,060 worth of cryptocurrency that was stolen in a scam that cost an elderly man and his sister from Bristolville over $1.6 million.

The federal prosecutor's office has asked a court for a Final Order of Forfeiture, which will officially give the government control of the stolen funds.

The money targeted in the legal action targets what’s known as Tether (USDT). Tether is a type of digital currency designed to keep a steady value, usually matching the U.S. dollar one-to-one. This stability makes it act like a digital dollar.

These digital funds were traced to an address on the public digital ledger, or decentralized record book, that keeps track of where all the cryptocurrency goes. Federal officials argue the funds must be seized because they are the profits of wire fraud and were used in money laundering.

The victims are identified in court documents by their initials: J.K., the elderly man from Trumbull County, and his sister, L.D.

The fraud started in November 2024 with a text message to J.K. The scammer convinced him to move their conversation to Telegram, an encrypted messaging app.

Using the username "Shaw Goddess," the scammer cultivated J.K.’s trust and persuaded him to invest in a fake cryptocurrency platform. J.K. ultimately wired over $1 million of his savings. He also convinced his sister, L.D., to invest an additional $600,000 in the same scheme.

The siblings discovered the scam when they tried to pull out their supposed earnings. When L.D. was told she had to pay a 10% tax upfront to get her money, J.K. became suspicious and realized they had been victims of a massive fraud.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation tracked the transactions on the public digital ledger to find part of the money. They successfully traced about 198,950 USDT of J.K.’s lost funds to the cryptocurrency address in question.

The government argues the total balance of 325,060 USDT should all be seized because J.K.'s stolen money was mixed, or commingled, with other illegal funds, which counts as money laundering.

The 325,060 USDT was frozen late last year by the company that issues Tether and was later formally seized by law enforcement. Since the unknown owner of the digital currency address failed to challenge the seizure in court, the forfeiture is set to become final.

The Bristolville victims, J.K. and L.D., will not be able to directly object to the forfeiture, but they have a clear path to get their money back through the U.S. Department of Justice’s remission process. The program is designed to return forfeited money to victims on a proportionate basis. The FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office plan to help the siblings with the necessary paperwork to recover their lost funds.