Knox County Sheriff’s Office announced earlier in August that it had arrested an illegal immigrant for an alleged crypto scam.
According to WBIR 10, Lee Kah Poh allegedly scammed two men out of $850,000. The outlet said Poh allegedly contacted these victims through the social media platform Telegram to see if they would invest in his business. Poh allegedly told them that they would see significant returns if they made an investment.
The sheriff’s office said this scam “was designed to appear as though victims could receive a large payout related to Bitcoin, contingent upon paying taxes on the expected proceeds. Many victims were scammed out of substantial amounts of money prior to the commencement of the investigation.”
Law enforcement began looking into this potential scam after being contacted about local residents allegedly being affected by a “sophisticated scam operation led by foreign nationals.” WBIR 10 reported the victims of this alleged scam attempted to get their earnings through a website, but it turned out to be fake.
On July 31, law enforcement arranged a meeting with the suspects of this alleged crypto scam. This meeting was meant to “collect additional funds believed to be part of the scam,” the sheriff’s office said.
Once at the meeting, detectives met Poh (pictured above) and took him into custody.
The sheriff’s office thanked the Federal Bureau of Investigation Knoxville Office for their assistance in this case.
Currently, there is a “Hold for Immigration” on Poh. When federal law enforcement requests these holds, it asks the local jail to hold the individual for 48 hours after their scheduled release date. U.S. Immigration Customs Enforcement will do this to see if an illegal immigrant is someone it wants to take custody of.
The sheriff’s office does not provide details about Poh’s country of origin.
Poh currently has a bond of $1 million and will appear in court on September 5.
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Zachery Schmidt is the digital editor of The Star News Network. Email tips to Zachery at [email protected].
