Aug. 14—CHAMBERLAIN, S.D. — A Chamberlain man lost close to half a million dollars in an alleged cryptocurrency scam that began with an online conversation and led to multiple in-person cash handoffs.
One suspect, 35-year-old Chee Yeng Wong, of Pasadena, California, has been charged with aggravated grand theft over $500,000, a Class 2 felony, in connection with the case.
According to court documents, the victim met a woman online in November 2024 who identified herself as Elsa Valentine on Facebook. Their communication later moved to the messaging app Telegram, where she said her real name was Chen Xinyue, a 41-year-old woman living in Los Angeles and originally from Hong Kong. She claimed to work for a cosmetics company and said she was involved in cryptocurrency investments through a wealthy uncle.
The two exchanged explicit images and videos, court documents say. Over time, the person identified online as Xinyue encouraged the man to invest in cryptocurrency. She helped him open accounts with Chain Wallet and Coinbase. On Dec. 5, 2024, he wired $5,000 to Coinbase, which was converted into cryptocurrency. Four days later, he made what appeared to be a profitable trade.
Xinyue continued urging the Chamberlain man to invest more funds. He later deposited $26,000, after being told she would contribute $50,000 of her own money. On Dec. 20, 2024, when he tried to withdraw funds from his account, he received a message from “customer service” stating that the account was under investigation for illegal trading. He was told he needed to invest additional funds before any withdrawals could be processed.
In January 2025, when he attempted to deposit the required funds online, he was restricted from doing so. “Customer service” then informed him that someone could meet him in person to collect the cash to deposit into his account. Following that, the victim met with a man four times in the parking lot of Mi Pueblo restaurant in Chamberlain to deliver large sums of cash. Three of the four in-person meetings were with the same representative, a male going by the name Jay Wang. These in-person handoffs totaled $441,000: $30,000, $90,000, $111,000, and $210,000.
At each meeting, the individual verified a pre-arranged passcode sent to the victim. On one occasion, the representative showed a passcode that did not match the one provided. The representative tried to cover up the mistake by saying it was a code for a different customer pickup. Authorities later identified “Jay Wang” as Chee Yeng Wong.
Following each delivery, the victim attempted to withdraw funds but was denied. Reasons provided included illegal data nodes, anti-money laundering flags, credit score concerns, and high-frequency trading activity. His Coinbase account displayed a balance of $1,248,561.83 but was frozen, pending an additional $208,227.40 deposit.
The victim also reported receiving threats from Xinyue, including threats to release explicit images and to cause the loss of his existing funds if he did not continue to send more money.
On May 14, 2025, Wong arrived at Mi Pueblo restaurant to collect another $100,000 in cash. He was arrested at the scene. Wong told authorities he had met with the Chamberlain victim multiple times to collect money and delivered the cash to a person he worked for, who directed him where to go and how much to collect.
Wong pleaded not guilty to the aggravated grand theft charge in June. In South Dakota, a Class 2 felony carries a potential prison sentence of up to 25 years. A jury trial is scheduled for October 2025.