The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) on Wednesday announced coordinated actions aimed at an illicit online marketplace called Xinbi Guarantee that offered scam services, including seizing Telegram channels used to run the service, confiscating two cryptocurrency wallets, and deploying the Scam Center Strike Force to Madagascar to help disrupt 13 scam compounds run by Chinese organized crime syndicates.
"Approximately $52 million of cryptocurrency involved in scam money laundering was restrained in one day, bringing the total restrained by the Scam Center Strike Force to approximately $938 million," DoJ said.
In tandem, the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has sanctioned the Chinese-language media for facilitating cyber scams, fraud, money laundering, and other criminal activity targeting Americans.
"Scam centers in Southeast Asia steal billions of dollars from American victims each year," said Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent in a statement. "The Trump Administration is united in its efforts to dismantle these overseas criminal enterprises, and [the] Treasury will continue using its tools to disrupt the networks behind this egregious fraud and protect Americans."
