U.S. authorities announced a major cryptocurrency enforcement operation targeting infrastructure used by Southeast Asian scam networks.
The Justice Department said its Scam Center Strike Force and Treasury took coordinated action against Xinbi Guarantee, described by authorities as a marketplace supplying services used by fraudulent operations.
Federal authorities restrained approximately $52 million in cryptocurrency associated with scam-money laundering in a single day.
That brings the total amount restrained by the Scam Center Strike Force to approximately $938 million, according to the Justice Department.
The operation extended beyond blockchain seizures. U.S. personnel also assisted authorities in Madagascar with actions involving 13 Chinese-run scam compounds.
Scam compounds have become a major cybercrime problem because they combine social engineering, trafficking, cryptocurrency payments and sophisticated laundering networks.
TOKEN RECON ASSESSMENT
This is another demonstration of blockchain’s dual role in financial crime.
Crypto can move value globally at speed, but public ledgers can also leave investigators with transaction trails that do not disappear when a scam operation shuts down.
Watch follow-on forfeiture cases, wallet seizures, sanctions against associated infrastructure and whether exchanges freeze additional linked addresses.
Primary source: U.S. Department of Justice — Scam Center Strike Force action
