Federal authorities have seized or frozen more than $580 million in digital assets linked to Chinese transnational criminal organizations following a coordinated enforcement action by multiple security agencies over the last three months, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia said Thursday.
The Scam Center Strike Force, which executed the recovery, was established in November last year to centralize interagency efforts against offshore “pig butchering” operations. It comprises the D.C. U.S. Attorney’s Office, DOJ’s Criminal Division, the FBI, the U.S. Secret Service, and IRS Criminal Investigation, according to a statement.
Per the statement, the restrained assets are linked to cryptocurrency investment fraud schemes and other confidence scams operated by Chinese organized crime affiliates in Burma, Cambodia, and Laos.
The targeted schemes involve scammers using U.S. social media platforms and text messages to gain victims’ trust before directing them to fake cryptocurrency investment websites. Workers in the scam compounds are often victims of human trafficking, held against their will and guarded by armed groups, the statement said. Officials cited reports estimating that the broader scam industry defrauds Americans of nearly $10 billion per year.
U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro said her office will seek to forfeit the frozen and seized cryptocurrency through the legal process and return the funds to victims “to the maximum extent possible.”
“These criminals don’t care who you are, what you believe in, or what you ate for breakfast — all they want is to steal from good and honest Americans to line the pockets of Chinese organized crime,” Pirro said in the statement. “My office and our law enforcement partners around the country are taking this threat head on.”
The enforcement action comes as Chinese-language money laundering networks have expanded their role in the illicit crypto economy. A January report by Chainalysis estimated that such networks processed $16.1 billion in cryptocurrency in 2025, or roughly $44 million per day across more than 1,799 active wallets. The firm said those networks accounted for approximately 20% of known illicit crypto laundering activity last year and have grown faster than inflows to centralized exchanges since 2020.
© 2026 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.
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