A fraudulent investment scheme operating under the names DSJ Exchange (DSJEX) and BG Wealth Sharing has siphoned at least $150 million from victims since 2025, promising daily returns of 1.3%–2.6% and referral bonuses. After US law enforcement seized one of the scam's domains on April 23 as part of Operation Level Up, the operators kept going for another week — then demanded a 12% 'tax' to go public before disabling withdrawals entirely. On-chain sleuth ZachXBT traced over $92 million laundered across multiple blockchains between April 27 and May 3, and Tether froze $38.4 million on May 4, with an additional $3.1 million frozen at other exchanges and services.
How the scheme worked
The platform lured victims through the Hong Kong messaging app BonChat, where a self-proclaimed professor named Stephen Beard acted as CEO and pushed recruitment and fake trading signals. Investors were promised daily returns of 1.3% to 2.6%, plus rank-based bonuses and commissions for referring others. Beard represented the operation as legitimate, but none of it was real.
Fake SEC license and global warnings
DSJ and BG Wealth falsely claimed to be licensed by the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The Washington State Department of Financial Institutions found no SEC registration. Thirteen regulators across five continents — including the UK FCA, Australian ASIC, Philippines SEC, and Washington DFI — issued public fraud warnings about the firms. That didn't stop the scam from continuing to collect deposits.
The collapse and the 'tax' demand
On the last Saturday before the scheme imploded, Beard demanded a 12% 'tax' on account balances as a prerequisite for the platform going public. By then withdrawals had already been disabled. After US authorities got involved, the scammers went into high gear: between April 27 and May 3 they laundered over $92 million in crypto assets across chains using token swaps, bridging, and consolidation through hundreds of addresses. ZachXBT tracked the outflows and shared details with Tether, Binance, OKX, and law enforcement.
Frozen funds and what's still out there
Tether's freeze of $38.4 million on May 4, plus another $3.1 million frozen at various crypto services, brought the total halted to $41.5 million. That still leaves over $100 million unaccounted for. The $150 million figure is likely an underestimate — the scheme ran since 2025 and forensic checks have identified thousands of withdrawals made by victims, many of which may represent new deposits from later victims.
The investigation continues. Law enforcement and exchanges are tracking additional fund movements, and the scam's operators remain at large.
