The Department of Justice’s Scam Center Strike Force has frozen and seized hundreds of millions in cryptocurrency tied to investment frauds run by Chinese transnational criminal organizations, targeting elaborate scam compounds in Southeast Asia that use U.S. social platforms to steal Americans’ life savings.
Federal prosecutors in D.C. say freezes and seizures tied to the Scam Center Strike Force have topped $580 million, money traced to cryptocurrency investment frauds and other confidence schemes. Those operations prey on ordinary Americans by exploiting social networks, text messaging, and fake investment platforms to convert real funds into phony crypto holdings and then steal them.
Recent estimates put the annual cost of this scam industry to Americans at nearly $10 billion, a staggering drain on households and retirement accounts. Scammers often hide behind networks of shell wallets and offshore infrastructure, making recovery difficult without coordinated seizures and legal action.
“In November, I announced the creation of our Scam Center Strike Force to lead the charge. In only three months, we have made significant progress, freezing, seizing, and forfeiting cryptocurrency worth more than $578 million from these criminals. These criminals don’t care who you are, what you believe in, or what you ate for breakfast—all they want is to steal from good and honest Americans to line the pockets of Chinese organized crime,” said U.S. Attorney Pirro.
“My office and our law enforcement partners around the country are taking this threat head-on. Seizures of cryptocurrency is one important part of the Scam Center Strike Force’s work. Through the legal process, my Office will seek to forfeit these funds and return them to victims to the maximum extent possible. To our American victims: we are here for you, we care for you, and we will continue fighting like hell to claw back your hard-earned savings from the hands of Chinese TCOs.”
Investigators say many of the schemes are run from so-called scam compounds in Burma, Cambodia, and Laos, where fraudsters use romance, investment, and employment ruses to “fatten” victims before defrauding them. Fraud operators call these campaigns “pig butchering,” because they groom targets with false trust and then drain accounts through phony exchanges, apps, and withdrawal scams.
Workers inside those compounds are often victims themselves, held by armed groups, trafficked, and forced to run scams 24/7. In some places the illicit revenue from scams is so large it rivals formal economic activity, in extreme cases accounting for nearly half of a country’s gross domestic product and corrupting local institutions.
The Strike Force is a multiagency effort: the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia is leading the charge with teams from DOJ’s Criminal Division, including the Computer Crimes & Intellectual Property Section, the Fraud Section, and Money Laundering, Narcotics and Forfeiture Section. Federal partners include the FBI, the U.S. Secret Service, and cooperating U.S. Attorney offices and IRS Criminal Investigation teams across the country.
Prosecutors singled out key leaders and affiliates in the region, aiming to dismantle the command-and-control networks and to freeze the wallets that funnel stolen funds back to organized crime. The legal strategy pairs aggressive seizure work with civil and criminal litigation so forfeited assets can be reclaimed and directed toward restitution for victims whenever possible.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Karen P. Seifert is named as the Strike Force lead for DOJ, while the crypto seizure team is led by Assistant United States Attorneys Rick Blaylock and John Borchert with technical partners from CCIPS. The U.S. Secret Service and the FBI are handling investigative and seizure operations across multiple field offices, bringing together cyber, financial crimes, and money-laundering capabilities.
This is a law-and-order response that Republicans should applaud: it pairs federal muscle with targeted, high-tech seizure tactics to cripple transnational criminal networks that don’t respect borders. The work is messy, expensive, and technically demanding, but recovering stolen assets and shutting down scam hubs is the only responsible path to protect American savers and to impose consequences on those behind these operations.
If you or someone you know has been defrauded in a cryptocurrency investment fraud scheme, contact the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov for reporting and guidance.
