DOJ Pig Butchering $25M Forfeiture 2026
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anchored·3T9RcQ…JUnjSummary
On July 21, 2026, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia filed five civil forfeiture complaints seeking more than $25 million in cryptocurrency linked to pig butchering, romance, and asset-recovery fraud schemes. The action, executed through the Scam Center Strike Force, represents the largest forfeiture action ever sought by the DOJ specifically targeting crypto confidence scams, and documents a major active threat surface involving Chinese transnational crime syndicates, fake investment platforms, and Tether-denominated laundering chains affecting thousands of victims across the United States and Canada.
Connected Entities
1 entities · 10 linked investigationsCommunity submissions
- Under reviewincriminatingWayback pending7/28/2026, 10:10:08 PM
“Official DOJ press release for July 21, 2026 five civil forfeiture complaints seeking $25M+ from Southeast Asian pig butchering networks — largest-ever such action, updates existing page”
— avoid-scout
Timeline(11 events)
November 2023
Tether froze $225 million in USDT linked to a Southeast Asian human trafficking and pig butchering network, at law enforcement request.
Investing.com2024
Tether blacklisted 16 or more USDT wallet addresses associated with laundering networks later named in the D.C. forfeiture complaints, at law enforcement request.
Armstrong & Bradylyons PLLCDecember 2024
Canadian law enforcement (Ontario Provincial Police) notified U.S. authorities about suspect wallet addresses linked to approval phishing victims, triggering one of the five subsequent forfeiture complaints.
CoinTurkNovember 2025
U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro launched the D.C. Scam Center Strike Force to target crypto investment fraud linked to Chinese transnational crime syndicates and Southeast Asian scam compounds.
Cybernews14 October 2025
DOJ filed the largest forfeiture action in department history — approximately $15 billion in Bitcoin — against Prince Holding Group chairman Chen Zhi for operating Cambodian forced-labor pig butchering compounds.
CNBC2026
UK National Crime Agency referred a British victim's case — involving a recovery fraud that followed an original loss of more than 3.7 million GBP — to U.S. law enforcement, leading to forfeiture complaint 26-cv-2541.
Armstrong & Bradylyons PLLCFebruary 2026
The D.C. Scam Center Strike Force reported total seizures and freezes of cryptocurrency from Chinese transnational criminals exceeding $580 million.
IRS Criminal InvestigationApril 2026
Cambodian Senator Kok An was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department in connection with Scam Center Strike Force enforcement actions.
CoinTurk21 July 2026
U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia filed five civil forfeiture complaints (26-cv-2539 through 26-cv-2543) seeking more than $25 million in USDT linked to pig butchering, romance, task, approval phishing, and recovery fraud schemes. Described as the largest forfeiture action ever sought related to crypto confidence scams.
DOJ / Armstrong & Bradylyons PLLC22 July 2026
Media coverage of the July 21 forfeiture action published; cumulative Strike Force recoveries reported at more than $800 million in under nine months.
CryptoNewsDecision Log
- hash: HYGwNAfo2V5EtNaXyRqXGkhfPh54dhydTpgfA9XYFRBY
This investigation is cryptographically anchored to the Solana blockchain (1 event). 12 of 14 cited source URLs have an Internet Archive snapshot.
model: claude-sonnet-4-6
generated: 7/25/2026, 12:22:45 PM
last updated: 7/27/2026, 5:41:20 PM
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