Binance Wins Dismissal of Lawsuit Linkedin to Pig Butchering Scam

The Secret Service, in a Reddit AMA, said they have been seeing a “ton” of pig butchering scams

article-image

Shutterstock modified by Blockworks

share

A US district judge has ruled in favor of Binance’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit connected to a purported pig butchering scam.

Plaintiff Divya Gadasalli alleged in her lawsuit that names several defendants that she lost over $8 million in a pig butchering scam. 

Pig butchering scams are typically a setup in which scammers reach out through texts or via dating apps to build a relationship with victims. Scammers generally then look to scam their victims into fake investments and disappear. 

She filed the claim against Binance and defendants “Jerry Bulasa (‘Bulasa’), Dong Lian, and Danyun Lin.” Bloomberg reported in May of last year that Bulasa was possibly using a pseudonym, and the identity of the additional two defendants wasn’t immediately clear.

Gadasalli’s attorney and Binance representatives, as well as Binance.US, did not immediately return a Blockworks’ request for comment on Tuesday.

A Texas court dismissed the lawsuit on Monday, according to a PACER filing.  

Gadasalli’s attorney in court filings said that Binance played a role in perpetuating the scam, but the judge overseeing the case this week found that Gadasalli’s claims lacked jurisdiction and failed to state an appropriate claim. 

“Gadasalli cannot point to a single fact of how Binance is actually involved in this case,” the judge wrote in the filing granting Binance’s motion to dismiss.

Court: Binance.Us banned from Texas operations 

The judge overseeing the case granted Binance’s motion to dismiss, based on multiple factors — including that Binance.US is barred from operating in Texas.

Gadasalli had argued that Binance encouraged the use of virtual private networks to access Binance or Binance.US from states where the two crypto exchanges are banned from operating in. 

“The ability for individuals to use third-party VPNs to circumvent certain regulations will not be enough to meet the exceptional standard and subject a defendant to the Court’s personal jurisdiction,” the judge wrote in the motion to dismiss. 

Pig butchering — named after the method of fattening a pig up before slaughter — has become somewhat prevalent. The term appears to have originated in Asia. 

On May 15, the US Secret Service San Francisco Field Office and Bay Area Enforcement Allied Computer Team said in a Reddit AMA that pig butchering scams have been the most common types of fraud perpetrated lately. 

REACT, specifically, has investigated over 50 cases, according to a Chainalysis report

While crypto scam revenue fell to $5.9 billion from $10.9 billion the year prior, agencies have warned that these particular scams are on the rise. 

In April, the Justice Department seized $112 million in funds linked to pig butchering scams. 

“We all know that investment scams are not new, but the use of digital currency to commit fraud presents new challenges to victims and to law enforcement trying to recover lost funds — which likely total billions of dollars in the so-called ‘pig butchering’ schemes,” Martin Estrada, a US Attorney, said in a statement.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily, with Byron Gilliam.

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

recent research

Unlocked by Template (10).png

Research

Innovations on Aptos’ technical design through Raptr, Shardines, and Zaptos approach near-optimal latency and throughput by unlocking 100% utilization of network resources, with the capacity to settle 260k transactions per second with latencies less than 800ms. The original Move language was revamped with the launch of Move 2, supporting more expressivity in smart contract logic and a scalable ability to interact with high volume datasets. The ecosystem has benefitted from strong asset inflows, now hosting over $1.3B in stablecoins, $450M in bridged BTC, and $530M in RWAs. Activity in the Aptos ecosystem has grown notably over the past year, with monthly application revenue reaching ~$835k and monthly DEX volumes growing to over $5B, both at new all time highs.

article-image

The Stripe-acquired firm has big plans for a streamlined, multi-wallet future

article-image

Both founders of the former crypto lender have now landed in new crypto industry roles

article-image

Bitcoin’s recent peak is a victory lap for curvers left and right

article-image

Securitize CEO Carlos Domingo says institutions are eager to get exposure to tokenization

article-image

Trade isn’t war and prosperity isn’t a contest