Florida Seizes $1.5M in Dogecoin, Pepe and Solana in Case Tied to Chinese National
Florida prosecutors have seized roughly $1.5 million in cryptocurrency—including Dogecoin (DOGE), Pepe (PEPE), Solana (SOL) and Avalanche (AVAX)—after tracing funds from an alleged investment fraud case to a digital wallet the state says is linked to a Chinese national.
According to the Florida Attorney General’s office, investigators followed on-chain transaction activity stemming from a Citrus County complaint tied to an alleged investment scam. The investigation led authorities to a wallet allegedly controlled by Tu Weizhi, who prosecutors say is believed to be in China.
The state said the wallet’s holdings—valued by prosecutors at about $1.5 million at the time—included a mix of AVAX, DOGE, PEPE and SOL tokens.
Notably, prosecutors did not seek to recover only the amount tied to the reported victim loss. The filing says the investigation connected the victim’s transactions to a broader pool of crypto assets in the same wallet, and authorities pursued a court order to seize the entire wallet balance.
A seizure warrant was filed in Florida’s Fifth Judicial Circuit, and the action was taken under the Fugitive Disentitlement Act, which allows courts to move against assets connected to a criminal case even when a defendant is outside the court’s jurisdiction.
Tu Weizhi has been charged with money laundering, grand theft, and operating an organized scheme to defraud, according to the Attorney General’s office.
The case underscores how law enforcement increasingly relies on blockchain tracing to follow funds across wallets and tokens, and how prosecutors may pursue broader asset seizures when they argue a wallet’s balance is connected to alleged criminal activity.