DOJ $225M Pig Butchering Forfeiture (June 2025)
Summary
On June 18, 2025, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia filed a civil forfeiture complaint — case no. 25-cv-1907 — seeking $225,364,961 in USDT held across seven cryptocurrency wallet groups, representing the largest seizure of funds tied to cryptocurrency confidence fraud in U.S. Secret Service history. The assets were traced through blockchain analysis to a transnational pig-butchering network linked to a Manila-based scam compound, ITECHNO Specialist Inc., with 144 exchange accounts on OKX and more than 430 identified victims worldwide. The action was coordinated by the FBI and U.S. Secret Service San Francisco Field Office, with Tether providing proactive investigative assistance including freezing and burning the targeted USDT tokens.
Connected Entities
1 entities · 10 linked investigationsTimeline(9 events)
2023-05-30
Shan Hanes, CEO of Heartland Tri-State Bank, begins transferring bank funds to pig-butchering scam wallets; $47.1 million wired through 11 transfers ending July 7, 2023.
Federal Reserve OIG2023-07-01
Heartland Tri-State Bank placed into FDIC receivership after liquidity collapse caused by Hanes's embezzlement; one of five U.S. bank failures in 2023.
CNBC2023-01-01
Tether, working alongside OKX, identifies over 144 exchange accounts showing activity consistent with pig-butchering scam proceeds and notifies the U.S. Secret Service (approximate date; reported as occurring in 2023).
NBC News2024-08-01
Shan Hanes sentenced to 24 years in federal prison — the longest white-collar sentence in Kansas federal court history — for embezzling $47.1 million from Heartland Tri-State Bank.
Federal Reserve OIG2024-11-01
FBI recovers approximately $8 million for Heartland Tri-State Bank shareholders from scam-linked cryptocurrency wallets.
FBI2025-06-18
U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia files civil forfeiture complaint (25-cv-1907) seeking $225,364,961 in USDT across seven wallet groups; action is the largest cryptocurrency seizure in U.S. Secret Service history.
DOJ Office of Public Affairs2025-06-18
Tether burns frozen USDT tokens across 39 wallet addresses and transfers equivalent newly-issued USDT to a Secret Service-controlled wallet, completing the on-chain seizure mechanism.
Baker McKenzie Blockchain Blog2025-11-12
DOJ launches the Scam Center Strike Force under U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro for the District of Columbia, formalizing the interagency approach to pig-butchering and Southeast Asian scam compounds.
DOJ USAO-DC2026-04-23
Scam Center Strike Force announces charges against Chinese nationals Huang Xingshan and Jiang Wen Jie for managing the Shunda compound fraud operation in Burma; Dubai Police arrests 275 individuals in a coordinated international operation; nine scam centers dismantled; five defendants charged in San Diego.
DOJ Office of Public AffairsDecision Log
- hash: EgE2CsQCDL9Nv2UYNaXvXgoH26ZyzirgJPrSgJoiv1b2
This investigation is cryptographically anchored to the Solana blockchain and source URLs are archived via the Internet Archive.
model: claude-code-investigator
generated: 6/27/2026, 5:26:51 PM
last updated: 6/27/2026, 5:27:01 PM
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