The Department of Justice recently recovered approximately $5.3 million for a union hit by a business email compromise (BEC) scheme.

The judgment was the result of a civil forfeiture complaint filed by the United States in June 2024 seeking the forfeiture of the funds.

As alleged in the complaint, in January 2023, a workers union based in Dorchester, Massachusetts, was defrauded out of $6.4 million after it received a spoofed email that appeared to be from its investment manager. The email misled the workers union into transferring the funds to the wrong bank account, which was controlled by a third party.

After the workers union sent the payment, the fraudulently obtained funds were transferred through several intermediary bank accounts, with some funds transferred, or attempted to be transferred, to a cryptocurrency exchange and to various foreign bank accounts located in Hong Kong, China, Singapore, and Nigeria.

Investigators also traced proceeds of the scheme to seven domestically held bank accounts, the contents of which were subsequently seized.

The Justice Department’s Criminal Division; the U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts; and the U.S. Secret Service made the announcement. The Secret Service investigated the case.