U.S. Columbia District Fraud Center Seizes $580 Million in Cryptocurrency

Odaily News: U.S. Federal Prosecutor Jeanine Pirro from the District of Columbia announced that the Fraud Center Strike Force has frozen and seized over $580 million in cryptocurrency from criminal networks in Southeast Asia. The task force, established in November 2025, operates under the coordination of the U.S. Department of Justice, FBI, Secret Service, and Treasury Department, primarily targeting transnational criminal networks operating "pig butchering" scams in countries like Myanmar, Cambodia, and Laos.

Pirro stated that her office will seek to forfeit the related funds through legal proceedings and return them to victims to the greatest extent possible.

Deddy Lavid, CEO of the blockchain analytics platform Cyvers, told Decrypt that while the $580 million seizure is operationally significant, it represents only a small fraction of total activity within the global context of crypto fraud. His company has identified approximately 27,000 active criminal groups, involving roughly $27.5 billion in fraud exposure. Pirro linked the Southeast Asian scam networks to Chinese organized crime, while Lavid noted that these networks are becoming increasingly decentralized, involving operators across multiple countries and cross-border money laundering hubs.