Freezes and seizures of cryptocurrency by the Scam Center Strike Force from Southeast Asian crime networks have topped $580 million, according to the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia.
In an announcement Thursday, Jeanine Pirro stated that the force had made “significant progress” in freezing, seizing and forfeiting crypto from scam networks operating in countries including Burma, Cambodia, and Laos.
In only three months, our Scam Center Strike Force has made significant progress, freezing, seizing, and forfeitingcryptocurrency from these criminals.
To our American victims: we are here for you, we care for you, and we will continue fighting like hell to claw back your… pic.twitter.com/RFD3zeJYsc
— US Attorney Pirro (@USAttyPirro) February 26, 2026
Pirro said that crypto seizures are “one important part of the Scam Center Strike Force’s work,” adding that, “Through the legal process, my Office will seek to forfeit these funds and return them to victims to the maximum extent possible.”
The Scam Center Strike Force
Founded in November 2025, the Scam Center Strike Force coordinates across the DOJ, FBI, Secret Service, U.S. Treasury, and other government agencies, targeting transnational criminal networks that have made billions of dollars through so-called “pig butchering” scams.
Pig butchering scams involve the use of social engineering to encourage victims to purchase cryptocurrency, before the scammers divert and seize control of the funds through fake investment domains and applications. Southeast Asia has emerged as a hotbed of scam compounds, often relying on coerced labor, which Interpol last year elevated to a global threat.
In September 2025, the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned 19 entities across Burma and Cambodia, dismantling scam operations that cost victims more than $10 billion in 2024. Last month, Amnesty International warned that mass escapes of workers from Cambodian scam compounds have created a “humanitarian crisis,” as trafficked victims flee abuses including rape and torture.
Deddy Lavid, CEO of blockchain analytics platform Cyvers, told Decrypt that while the $580 million in seizures announced Thursday is “certainly operationally meaningful,” in the wider context of global crypto fraud, it represents “only a fraction of the total activity we’re observing.”
Lavid added that the company has identified some 27,000 active criminal groups worldwide, with some $27.5 billion in fraud exposure and detected illicit value flows.
The China connection
In Thursday’s announcement, Pirro linked Southeast Asian scam networks to “Chinese organized crime,” operating through transnational criminal organizations.
According to Lavid, the picture is more nuanced; while a “meaningful share” of Southeast Asian scam infrastructure shows “operational, linguistic, financial, or routing ties” to Chinese TCOs, the networks involved are “increasingly decentralized and hybrid in nature.”
These hybrid networks, he added, frequently involve local operators, regional facilitators, and cross-border laundering hubs, with “core orchestration layers” built atop Chinese-language infrastructure and financial routing patterns, linked to regional execution hubs in locations such as Cambodia, Myanmar, and Laos and “distributed laundering and cash-out layers across multiple jurisdictions.”
The result, he said, is that Chinese TCOs “appear to play a central coordination role” in an increasingly “multinational and operationally fragmented” criminal ecosystem.
Daily Debrief Newsletter
Start every day with the top news stories right now, plus original features, a podcast, videos and more.
