Australia’s corporate regulator has received approval to dismantle 95 companies suspected of involvement in cryptocurrency investment and romance scams, often referred to as “pig butchering.”
The Federal Court of Australia granted the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) permission to dissolve these companies on equitable grounds, after finding that the majority were established with deceptive information.
Numerous companies claimed to offer “genuine services” but were actually believed to be scamming individuals, as noted by ASIC Deputy Chair Sarah Court in a statement made on April 8.
“There appears to be a recurring pattern of scam activities resembling ‘pig butchering,’” stated Justice Angus Stewart during a court ruling on April 4, after reviewing reports of misconduct from 17 companies implicated in facilitating romance scams. The ruling was issued on March 21.
Pig butchering scams typically involve fraudsters creating fraudulent relationships with victims to gain their trust before persuading them to invest in phony cryptocurrency or financial schemes.
The securities regulator also suspects that much of this fraudulent activity is originating from Southeast Asia.
Catherine Conneely and Thomas Birch of Cor Cordis have been appointed as joint liquidators for the 95 companies.
According to the court order, nearly 1,500 claims from “investors” have been submitted to the provisional liquidators, totaling over $35.8 million in claims. These claimants hail from 14 nations, including Australia, the US, Cameroon, Ghana, India, Nepal, the Philippines, and France.
The provisional liquidators found that only three of the 95 companies possessed any assets and recommended that the other 92 be dissolved and deregistered immediately.
### ASIC Taking Down Scam Websites
ASIC has reported that it has been eliminating around 130 scam websites weekly recently, bringing its total over 10,000. Among these, there have been more than 7,200 scams involving fake investment platforms and 1,564 phishing scams.
“However, these scams are like hydras; you take one down, and two more emerge. This is why we urge consumers to remain cautious, as the threat of scams and identity theft continues to be significant,” Court explained.
Australia’s National Anti-Scam Centre recently announced a 26% decrease in scam losses to $2 billion in 2024, while the total number of reported scams also fell by 17.8% to 494,732.