U.S. Government Seizes Over $580 Million In Crypto

"In only three months, we have made significant progress, freezing, seizing, and forfeiting cryptocurrency worth more than $578 million from these criminals. She said her office will seek forfeiture through the courts and aims to return funds to victims."

"Authorities describe the schemes as "pig butchering" operations, in which fraudsters build relationships with victims before steering them into fraudulent crypto investments. Victims are persuaded to purchase legitimate digital assets and then transfer them to counterfeit trading platforms controlled by the scam networks."

"The operations often run out of secured compounds in parts of Southeast Asia, including Burma, Cambodia, and Laos. U.S. officials said some workers inside the compounds are trafficking victims who are forced to carry out scams under threat of violence."

The Justice Department's Scam Center Strike Force has frozen and seized more than $580 million in cryptocurrency linked to Southeast Asian criminal organizations in just three months. These networks operate "pig butchering" schemes, where fraudsters build relationships with victims before directing them into fake cryptocurrency investments. Victims are tricked into purchasing legitimate digital assets and transferring them to counterfeit trading platforms controlled by the scammers. The operations run from secured compounds in Burma, Cambodia, and Laos, with some workers being trafficking victims forced to participate under threat of violence. Annual losses to Americans from these schemes exceed $10 billion. Federal authorities are targeting senior figures, organizers, and money launderers within these networks, tracing funds across blockchain transactions and shell accounts to disrupt operations and return assets to victims.

Read at Bitcoin Magazine