Key Takeaways
The US Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia and the Secret Service filed five civil forfeiture complaints on July 21 seeking more than $25 million in cryptocurrency tied to international fraud.
The seizures are part of more than $800 million recovered by the Scam Center Strike Force, the enforcement effort launched in November 2025.
Investigators traced funds through hundreds of laundering wallets run mostly from Southeast Asia, confirming thousands of victims across the US and Canada.
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia and the U.S. Secret Service Washington Field Office said on July 21 that they had seized more than $25 million in cryptocurrency tied to international fraud, filing five civil forfeiture complaints in federal court.
The cases pull apart investment and romance scams that targeted residents of the United States and Canada, with agents tracing proceeds through hundreds of intermediary wallets and confirming thousands of victims worldwide.
The largest complaint seeks about $12.1 million from a romance-scam network that commingled victim funds across hundreds of addresses. Another seeks roughly $10.4 million after Canadian authorities flagged wallets moving illicit money, and a third tied to a fake investment platform seeks about $2.4 million, CoinDesk reported.
In each case the launderers were predominantly located in Southeast Asia, with IP addresses in China, Malaysia, and Cambodia, according to the Justice Department. One of the five is a recovery scam, where fraudsters contacted an earlier victim, promised to retrieve lost money, and took a fresh round of fees instead.
The seizures are part of more than $800 million recovered by the Scam Center Strike Force, the effort launched in November 2025 by U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro, who said the case "demonstrates the power of aggressively targeting these international fraud networks."
The pattern here is hard to ignore. Blockchain's public ledger is what let investigators trace the money in the first place, and the seizure lands the same stretch the government keeps pressing crypto-enabled crime elsewhere, from the DOJ task force that says it has recovered more than $1 billion to the wallet-level freeze after OFAC sanctioned Iran's central bank. Worth watching.
People Also Ask
What did the DOJ seize in the July 2026 crypto scam case?
The US Attorney for DC and the Secret Service filed five civil forfeiture complaints seeking more than $25 million in cryptocurrency tied to romance and investment scams that hit US and Canadian victims.
What is the Scam Center Strike Force?
It is a Justice Department effort launched in November 2025 by US Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro that has recovered more than $800 million tied to international fraud networks.
How do investigators trace stolen cryptocurrency?
Agents follow funds across blockchain addresses and intermediary wallets, then move to freeze and forfeit the assets through civil complaints in court.
What is a crypto recovery scam?
It is a scheme where fraudsters contact earlier victims, claim they can recover stolen funds, and charge a fee before stealing again. One of the five DC cases involves this tactic.
Sources: U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia, U.S. Secret Service, CoinDesk.