Summary
- More than $25 million in cryptocurrency has been confiscated by U.S. prosecutors, linked to global fraud schemes that deceived victims in the U.S. and Canada.
- This recovery was made through five civil forfeiture actions filed on Tuesday in Washington, D.C., related to investment and romance scams.
- These funds add to the over $800 million already reclaimed by the Scam Center Strike Force, which was established in late 2025.
U.S. prosecutors have successfully seized over $25 million in cryptocurrency associated with international fraud operations that victimized numerous individuals across the United States and Canada, as reported by the Justice Department on Tuesday.
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia, in collaboration with the Secret Service's Washington Field Office, initiated five civil forfeiture complaints on Tuesday, each linked to distinct investigations into fraudulent cryptocurrency investment schemes and online romance scams. Investigators traced the illicit funds through hundreds of intermediary wallet addresses, where they had been mixed with contributions from various victims.
Today, @USAttyPirro and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, together with the U.S. Secret Service Washington Field Office, announced that multiple investigations conducted by their Cyber Fraud Task Force have resulted in the seizure of more than $25 million…
— U.S. Attorney DC (@USAO_DC) July 21, 2026
The largest forfeiture complaint involves approximately $12.1 million linked to romance scams affecting over 200 individuals, followed by around $10.4 million identified by Canadian authorities across more than 270 suspected victim transactions. The other three cases range from $285,000 to $2.4 million, including one instance where scammers impersonated recovery agents promising to retrieve funds lost in previous frauds.
According to prosecutors, the launderers were predominantly located in Southeast Asia, with IP addresses originating from China, Malaysia, and Cambodia.
About the Scam Center Strike Force
This seizure is part of the efforts of the Scam Center Strike Force, established in November 2025 by U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro. "We cut through complex laundering schemes" to access the funds, Pirro stated. The five ongoing investigations have contributed to the strike force's total recovery exceeding $800 million.
In all cases, prosecutors noted that the launderers primarily operated from Southeast Asia, with IP addresses traced back to China, Malaysia, and Cambodia, highlighting a growing scam economy in the region that has been designated by Interpol as a global threat.
Much of the cryptocurrency investment and romance fraud is perpetrated from forced-labor compounds in Cambodia, Myanmar, and Laos, where trafficked individuals are compelled to defraud victims worldwide. In October, U.S. and UK authorities charged Cambodia's Prince Group and seized over 127,000 BTC from the network—valued at about $12 billion at the time, marking the largest civil seizure and forfeiture in the history of the DOJ.