The US Justice Department announced the seizure of over $225 million in cryptocurrency tied to a large-scale investment scam targeting more than 400 victims globally, including dozens in the United States.
This marks the largest-ever confiscation of funds stolen through so-called “crypto confidence” scams, which lure individuals into fraudulent cryptocurrency investments. According to the unsealed complaint, the scam caused millions in losses and involved “hundreds of thousands” of transactions aimed at laundering the stolen assets.
Shawn Bradstreet, a Secret Service special agent in charge, confirmed that the government now holds the seized funds and intends to return as much as possible to the victims.
Crypto investment scams have surged in recent years, with reported losses escalating from $2.57 billion in 2022 to nearly $4 billion in 2023, and reaching $5.8 billion in 2024, according to FBI data.
Law enforcement agencies, including the FBI and Secret Service, are intensifying efforts to warn the public about the severe financial risks posed by crypto scams. CNN previously reported on a case in which an elderly American man took his own life after losing his savings to such fraud.
Many of these scams, often called “pig butchering,” are linked to organized networks in Southeast Asia. Investigations have traced some operations to compounds near the Myanmar-Thailand border, while the current case involved activity traced to the Philippines.
Bradstreet emphasized that these scams exploit trust and cause significant financial harm to victims. The crackdown comes amid concerns about the federal government’s commitment to aggressively pursuing crypto fraud following organizational changes at the Justice Department.
Despite a recent memo disbanding the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team and raising questions about prosecutorial priorities, Jeanine Pirro, interim US attorney for the District of Columbia, affirmed the resolve to target crypto criminals, describing the field as “an unregulated Wild West” stretching across all directions.