DOJ Pig Butchering $25M Forfeiture 2026
Summary
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 investigationsTimeline(11 events)
2023-11-01
Tether froze $225 million in USDT linked to a Southeast Asian human trafficking and pig butchering network, at law enforcement request.
Investing.com2024-01-01
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 PLLC2024-12-01
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.
CoinTurk2025-11-01
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.
Cybernews2025-10-14
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.
CNBC2026-01-01
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 PLLC2026-02-01
The D.C. Scam Center Strike Force reported total seizures and freezes of cryptocurrency from Chinese transnational criminals exceeding $580 million.
IRS Criminal Investigation2026-04-01
Cambodian Senator Kok An was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department in connection with Scam Center Strike Force enforcement actions.
CoinTurk2026-07-21
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 PLLC2026-07-22
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
- #1publish⛓ pending7/25/2026, 12:22:58 PMhash: HYGwNAfo2V5EtNaXyRqXGkhfPh54dhydTpgfA9XYFRBY
0 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: 7/25/2026, 12:22:58 PM
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