Saipan Woman Sentenced to 71 Months for Bitcoin Fraud Against Elderly Woman

April 28: A U.S. federal court sentenced Saipan resident Sze Man Yu Inos—also known as “Yuki”—to 71 months in prison for her role in a Bitcoin-related scam. In an April 27 statement, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) said the 30-year-old fraudster targeted elderly women in Saipan and Guam in a telecommunications fraud scheme spanning November 2020 to January 2022. She falsely claimed to come from a wealthy Chinese family and had found success investing in Bitcoin. To gain their trust, she built emotional bonds with victims—often telling them, “You’re like a mother to me”—before persuading them to invest in the cryptocurrency. She later expanded the scam to victims in Washington State and California. Beyond the prison term, the court ordered her to pay $769,355 in total restitution and imposed a $684,848 criminal forfeiture judgment. Recent reports note a growing trend in cryptocurrency-related fraud, with losses hitting a record $11.3 billion last year.