The United States has escalated its crackdown on global crypto-investment fraud with the creation of a new interagency Scam Center Strike Force. It is a first-of-its-kind unit designed to dismantle Southeast Asian scam networks responsible for billions in losses to Americans each year.
The move comes as federal agencies, fresh off coordinated actions with the U.K. and major crypto-linked seizures, step up efforts to stop sprawling criminal groups exploiting social media, U.S. infrastructure, and blockchain rails to run mass fraud operations.
U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Ferris Pirro announced the initiative on Wednesday, calling 2024’s $9 billion in crypto-related losses a “generational wealth transfer from Main Street America into the pockets of Chinese organized crime.”
According to U.S. investigators, Chinese transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) operating in Cambodia, Laos, Burma, and Indonesia are running highly sophisticated confidence scams, known as pig butchering, that trick victims into transferring real crypto into fake investment platforms.
Once sent, funds are rapidly laundered across international wallets, often through U.S.-based hosting providers before vanishing offshore. “This is organized crime on a geopolitical scale,” Pirro said.
The Strike Force is already producing results. Its crypto seizure unit has confiscated $401.6 million and filed forfeiture actions for another $80 million linked to U.S. victims. Treasury has also added the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army and other scam-linked entities to OFAC’s sanctions list.
Teams have launched operations in Burma, seizing scam-run websites and targeting satellite terminals used to power fraud networks. In Bali, Strike Force intelligence helped local authorities prosecute 38 suspects tied to Cambodia-based organizers.
The FBI has deployed agents to Thailand, embedding with the Royal Thai Police to map networks like the KK Park compound.
The new Strike Force follows sweeping joint U.S.-U.K. sanctions this month against major Southeast Asian crime syndicates, including:
Huione Group, accused of laundering more than $4 billion linked to pig-butchering scams and North Korean cybertheft.
Cambodia’s Prince Group TCO, which prosecutors say used shell companies and crypto flows to conceal criminal proceeds.
These actions show a coordinated effort to cut off the financial channels that enable cross-border crypto scams.
The Strike Force is now focused on identifying the leadership of Chinese-linked scam networks in Southeast Asia and shutting down the U.S.-based infrastructure they use, from servers and internet accounts to social platforms that lure victims.
Treasury and State will help isolate scam compounds and cut off their financial channels, while the team expands public education and works to recover stolen funds for victims.