Audit log

Every state-changing event for DOJ Pig Butchering Civil Forfeiture — DC District July 2026: moderation decisions on community submissions, plus corrections and updates from the news pipeline. URL-based decisions are designed to carry three independent witnesses — the original source, an Internet Archive snapshot, and a Solana memo signed by our publicly-disclosed publisher key. Archive coverage is still being backfilled, so each decision below reports its own snapshot status rather than assuming one exists.

1. #1publishby system:backfill

   2026-08-17 23:54:08Z
   Score: ? → ? (no score change)
   anchorpending

   chain

   ●—

   hash

   DiV8zu68z3GP…DYk3kV33copysha256 → base58

   verifying row…

   canonical bytes (27045 B) ▸

   {"actor":"system:backfill","investigation_id":"114cd987-aa00-4a8e-afad-188bf025e2bb","kind":"publish","page_slug":"doj-pig-butchering-civil-forfeiture-dc-district-july-2026","published_at":"2026-08-17T23:54:07.937Z","sequence_num":1,"snapshot":{"content_type":"investigation","entity_name":"DOJ Pig Butchering Civil Forfeiture — DC District July 2026","sections":[{"content":"On July 21, 2026, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia (USAO-DC), in partnership with the U.S. Secret Service Washington Field Office and its Cyber Fraud Task Force, filed five civil forfeiture complaints in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The complaints collectively seek the forfeiture of more than $25 million in Tether (USDT), a U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin, that investigators traced to alleged pig butchering fraud schemes operated by criminal networks based primarily in Southeast Asia.\n\nThe five complaints are in rem actions — proceedings against the cryptocurrency itself rather than named individuals. No individual defendants are named in the filings. The government must still persuade a federal judge that the assets are sufficiently linked to illegal activity before the funds can be permanently forfeited and potentially returned to victims. These are civil complaints, not criminal indictments; no findings of liability have been adjudicated.\n\nU.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro, who leads USAO-DC and chairs the Scam Center Strike Force, stated the seizure was a direct result of that initiative.","heading":"Overview of the July 21, 2026 Civil Forfeiture Action","severity":"high","sources":[{"credibility":2,"name":"US Seizes Over $25 Million in Crypto From Southeast Asian Pig Butchering Rings — BigGo Finance","type":"news_article","url":"https://finance.biggo.com/news/e250dbd7-84a6-4ddb-9ade-8c858bc49713"},{"credibility":2,"name":"DOJ's $25 Million Crypto Forfeiture: Five Civil Complaints, Frozen Tether, No Defendants — Armstrong & Bradylyons PLLC","type":"other","url":"https://www.armstrongbradylyons.com/library/doj-crypto-forfeiture-25-million"},{"credibility":2,"name":"DOJ Sues $25M in USDT Tied to Pig-Butchering Rings — ScamWatchHQ","type":"news_article","url":"https://scamwatchhq.com/doj-25-million-usdt-civil-forfeiture-suing-the-money-2026/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"US authorities recover over $25M from crypto fraud operations in Scam Center Strike Force — Cryptonews.net","type":"news_article","url":"https://cryptonews.net/news/security/33182595/"}]},{"content":"Investigators and published reports identify the five civil complaints as follows, based on the total of approximately $26.4 million in USDT sought:\n\n1. Approximately $12.09 million — linked to alleged online romance schemes in which more than 200 victims were reportedly defrauded. Fraudsters allegedly cultivated emotional relationships before directing victims to counterfeit trading platforms.\n\n2. Approximately $10.4 million — linked to alleged fake investment platforms. Canadian authorities flagged associated wallet addresses in late 2024, and U.S. investigators identified more than 270 suspected victim transactions tied to these platforms.\n\n3. Approximately $2.39 million — linked to alleged domain-spoofing of the Zoomex cryptocurrency exchange.\n\n4. Approximately $1.23–1.77 million — linked to a platform identified in reporting as MicMarkets, allegedly involving 17 victims.\n\n5. Approximately $284,900–$285,000 — linked to an alleged two-stage confidence scheme targeting at least one British victim.\n\nAll five complaints allege that victim funds were laundered through networks of cryptocurrency wallets operated from Southeast Asia, with IP addresses traced to China, Malaysia, and Cambodia. In aggregate, investigators identified more than 470 victims across the United States and Canada. These are allegations contained in civil complaints; no court has adjudicated the underlying claims.","heading":"The Five Complaints: Amounts and Alleged Fraud Types","severity":"high","sources":[{"credibility":2,"name":"DOJ Sues $25M in USDT Tied to Pig-Butchering Rings — ScamWatchHQ","type":"news_article","url":"https://scamwatchhq.com/doj-25-million-usdt-civil-forfeiture-suing-the-money-2026/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"US Seizes Over $25 Million in Crypto From Southeast Asian Pig Butchering Rings — BigGo Finance","type":"news_article","url":"https://finance.biggo.com/news/e250dbd7-84a6-4ddb-9ade-8c858bc49713"},{"credibility":2,"name":"DOJ's $25 Million Crypto Forfeiture: Five Civil Complaints, Frozen Tether, No Defendants — Armstrong & Bradylyons PLLC","type":"other","url":"https://www.armstrongbradylyons.com/library/doj-crypto-forfeiture-25-million"}]},{"content":"Pig butchering (known in Chinese as sha zhu pan, or 'slaughter the pig') is a category of confidence fraud in which perpetrators cultivate trust with targets — often through dating applications, social media, or unsolicited text messages — before introducing them to ostensibly lucrative cryptocurrency investment platforms. The platforms display fabricated profits; victims are permitted to make small early withdrawals to build confidence. When victims attempt to withdraw larger sums, operators demand escalating 'tax payments' or 'compliance fees.' Once victims exhaust their ability or willingness to pay, the operators vanish with all deposited funds.\n\nThe five July 2026 complaints describe schemes incorporating romance scams, approval phishing (in which victims are socially engineered into granting smart-contract approvals that drain their wallets), and recovery fraud (in which prior pig butchering victims are re-targeted with false promises of fund recovery). FBI IC3 data cited in the complaints estimates that victims lost $7.2 billion to cryptocurrency investment fraud in 2025 alone. U.S. officials have separately estimated that scam compound operations in Burma, Cambodia, and Laos extract approximately $10 billion annually from U.S. residents.","heading":"Pig Butchering: Scheme Mechanics","severity":"critical","sources":[{"credibility":2,"name":"DOJ's $25 Million Crypto Forfeiture: Five Civil Complaints, Frozen Tether, No Defendants — Armstrong & Bradylyons PLLC","type":"other","url":"https://www.armstrongbradylyons.com/library/doj-crypto-forfeiture-25-million"},{"credibility":2,"name":"US seizes over $25 million in crypto from Southeast Asian scam networks — Cryptopolitan","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.cryptopolitan.com/us-seizes-crypto-from-asian-scam-networks/"}]},{"content":"The July 2026 filings are one component of the DC Scam Center Strike Force, a multi-agency initiative launched in November 2025 by U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro. The Strike Force targets cryptocurrency investment fraud attributed to Chinese transnational criminal organizations operating scam compounds primarily in Southeast Asia.\n\nKey milestones in the Strike Force's reported activity:\n\n- By January 2026, the initiative had reportedly recovered approximately $402 million in digital assets.\n- On February 26, 2026, DOJ and the Secret Service announced that the Strike Force had frozen and seized cryptocurrency totaling more than $580 million, described as proceeds of pig butchering schemes attributed to Chinese transnational criminal networks. IRS Criminal Investigation, FBI, and U.S. Attorneys' Offices for Rhode Island and the Western District of Washington participated.\n- By the time of the July 21, 2026 filings, the Strike Force had reportedly restrained more than $832 million in cryptocurrency.\n\nAdditionally, on February 25, 2026, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina separately announced the seizure of approximately $61 million in USDT linked to pig butchering fraud, in an action supported by Homeland Security Investigations Raleigh and blockchain intelligence provided by TRM Labs. That action is distinct from the DC District filings.\n\nA prior, larger single filing occurred on June 18, 2025, when USAO-DC filed a civil forfeiture complaint targeting more than $225.3 million in cryptocurrency — the largest cryptocurrency seizure in U.S. Secret Service history at the time — linked to an alleged blockchain-based money laundering network tied to at least 400 suspected victims worldwide. That earlier action is a separate enforcement event from the July 21, 2026 complaints documented here.","heading":"DC Scam Center Strike Force: Broader Enforcement Context","severity":"high","sources":[{"credibility":1,"name":"D.C. Scam Center Strike Force Seizures Top $580 Million — U.S. Secret Service","type":"regulatory","url":"https://www.secretservice.gov/newsroom/releases/2026/02/dc-scam-center-strike-force-seizures-cryptocurrency-chinese-transnational"},{"credibility":1,"name":"D.C. Scam Center Strike Force Seizures of Cryptocurrency from Chinese Transnational Criminals Tops $580 Million — DOJ USAO-DC","type":"regulatory","url":"https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/pr/dc-scam-center-strike-force-seizures-cryptocurrency-chinese-transnational-criminals-tops"},{"credibility":1,"name":"D.C. Scam Center Strike Force Seizures Top $580 Million — IRS Criminal Investigation","type":"regulatory","url":"https://www.irs.gov/compliance/criminal-investigation/dc-scam-center-strike-force-seizures-of-cryptocurrency-from-chinese-transnational-criminals-tops-580-million"},{"credibility":1,"name":"US Attorney's Office EDNC Announces Seizure of $61 Million in Cryptocurrency — DOJ","type":"regulatory","url":"https://www.justice.gov/usao-ednc/pr/us-attorneys-office-ednc-announces-seizure-61-million-dollars-worth-cryptocurrency"},{"credibility":2,"name":"DOJ Seizes USD 61 Million Tied to Pig Butchering Scam in North Carolina — TRM Labs","type":"research","url":"https://www.trmlabs.com/resources/blog/doj-seizes-usd-61-million-tied-to-pig-butchering-scam-in-north-carolina"},{"credibility":1,"name":"Largest Ever Seizure of Funds Related to Crypto Confidence Scams — DOJ USAO-DC (June 2025 action)","type":"regulatory","url":"https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/pr/largest-ever-seizure-funds-related-crypto-confidence-scams"},{"credibility":1,"name":"DOJ seizes record $225 million in crypto tied to global pig butchering scams — NBC News","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/doj-seizes-record-225-million-crypto-tied-global-pig-butchering-scams-rcna213790"}]},{"content":"Contemporaneous with the DC Strike Force's domestic actions, international enforcement activity against pig butchering networks intensified in the same period. On April 29, 2026, DOJ announced an international operation conducted in cooperation with the FBI, Dubai Police, Chinese Ministry of Public Security, and Thai authorities that resulted in 275 arrests in Dubai and one arrest in Thailand — 276 total. Six defendants were charged in the Southern District of California.\n\nThe April 2026 operation also restrained approximately $701.96 million in cryptocurrency linked to alleged money laundering, seized 503 fake investment websites, and executed a first-of-its-kind seizure of a Telegram channel with more than 6,000 followers that investigators alleged was used to recruit forced-labor workers to Cambodia under false pretenses. The operation shut down nine named scam centers, including facilities operating under the names Ko Thet Company, Sanduo Group, and Giant Company.\n\nSeparately, the FBI's Operation Level Up, which began in January 2024, had alerted nearly 9,000 identified potential victims and reportedly prevented approximately $562 million in additional losses as of April 2026. Operation Atlantic (March 16, 2026), a joint action with the UK National Crime Agency, Ontario Provincial Police, and Ontario Securities Commission, identified more than 20,000 cryptocurrency wallet addresses across 30 countries, froze $12 million, and identified $33 million linked to investment fraud.\n\nThese operations are distinct enforcement actions from the July 21, 2026 DC District filings but share the same target typology and are attributed to overlapping criminal infrastructure.","heading":"Global Enforcement Wave: 276 Arrests, $701 Million Restrained (April 2026)","severity":"high","sources":[{"credibility":2,"name":"Global Crackdown Arrests 276, Shuts 9 Crypto Scam Centers, Seizes $701M — The Hacker News","type":"news_article","url":"https://thehackernews.com/2026/05/global-crackdown-arrests-276-shuts-9.html"},{"credibility":2,"name":"FBI-led takedown shatters pig butchering crypto scam network with 276 arrests and $701 million — The Cooldown","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.thecooldown.com/green-business/international-crackdown-on-cryptocurrency-scams/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"The 2026 Pig Butchering Reckoning: Inside the Year's Biggest Crypto Scam Crackdowns — CryptoTimes","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.cryptotimes.io/2026/05/05/2026-pig-butchering-crypto-scam-crackdowns/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"276 Arrested as Crypto Scams Surge in 2026 — AMBCrypto","type":"news_article","url":"https://ambcrypto.com/276-arrested-as-crypto-scams-surge-in-2026-millions-lost-to-pig-butchering/"}]},{"content":"The civil forfeiture complaints and related enforcement announcements describe laundering infrastructure attributed to scam compound operations concentrated in Burma (Myanmar), Cambodia, and Laos. IP addresses in the July 2026 complaints were traced to China, Malaysia, and Cambodia. Investigators and journalists have documented that many of the workers who operate these fraud schemes are themselves victims of human trafficking — foreign nationals recruited under false promises of legitimate employment and forced to conduct fraud under coercive conditions.\n\nThe April 2026 international operation specifically noted that the seized Telegram channel was used to recruit forced-labor workers. The 2026 Pig Butchering Reckoning report by CryptoTimes noted that 93 victims across the broader enforcement sweep required suicide intervention referrals — a metric reflecting the psychological severity of the fraud on its victims.\n\nU.S. officials estimate that scam compound operations in this region extract approximately $10 billion annually from U.S. residents. These figures are government estimates cited in the complaints and related public statements; they have not been independently adjudicated.","heading":"Southeast Asia Networks, Human Trafficking, and Forced Labor","severity":"critical","sources":[{"credibility":2,"name":"US seizes over $25 million in crypto from Southeast Asian scam networks — Cryptopolitan","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.cryptopolitan.com/us-seizes-crypto-from-asian-scam-networks/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"The 2026 Pig Butchering Reckoning — CryptoTimes","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.cryptotimes.io/2026/05/05/2026-pig-butchering-crypto-scam-crackdowns/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Global Crackdown Arrests 276, Shuts 9 Crypto Scam Centers, Seizes $701M — The Hacker News","type":"news_article","url":"https://thehackernews.com/2026/05/global-crackdown-arrests-276-shuts-9.html"}]},{"content":"The July 2026 complaints relied on blockchain tracing conducted by the U.S. Secret Service Cyber Fraud Task Force. Investigators used graph analysis and transaction pattern recognition to follow victim funds across multiple wallet hops and blockchain networks. Funds were reportedly identified passing through decentralized finance (DeFi) swapping services and consolidation addresses where multiple victims' funds were commingled.\n\nIn the related North Carolina case (February 2026), TRM Labs provided the blockchain intelligence platform used to trace $61 million in USDT. Tether, the issuer of USDT, cooperated with investigators in both the June 2025 $225 million action and the broader Strike Force effort. Tether's ability to freeze USDT on-chain was cited by DOJ as a key enabling factor in the recovery of stablecoin-denominated proceeds.","heading":"Blockchain Tracing and Investigative Methods","severity":"medium","sources":[{"credibility":2,"name":"DOJ Seizes USD 61 Million Tied to Pig Butchering Scam in North Carolina — TRM Labs","type":"research","url":"https://www.trmlabs.com/resources/blog/doj-seizes-usd-61-million-tied-to-pig-butchering-scam-in-north-carolina"},{"credibility":1,"name":"DOJ seizes record $225 million in crypto tied to global pig butchering scams — NBC News","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/doj-seizes-record-225-million-crypto-tied-global-pig-butchering-scams-rcna213790"}]},{"content":"As of the date of this investigation (August 2026), the five civil forfeiture complaints filed on July 21, 2026, remain pending in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The government has not yet obtained final forfeiture judgments; the complaints are at an early stage of civil proceedings. No individual criminal defendants are named. The funds remain restrained pending court proceedings.\n\nThe complaints are civil forfeiture actions under federal law and are not criminal charges. They represent the government's allegations about the provenance of the targeted assets. A court must find by a preponderance of the evidence that the funds are traceable to the alleged offenses before forfeiture can be ordered. Claimants to the funds may contest the forfeiture.\n\nThe broader Scam Center Strike Force enforcement figures — including total seizure amounts — are drawn from government press releases and have not been independently audited.","heading":"Procedural Status and Limitations","severity":"low","sources":[{"credibility":2,"name":"DOJ's $25 Million Crypto Forfeiture: Five Civil Complaints, Frozen Tether, No Defendants — Armstrong & Bradylyons PLLC","type":"other","url":"https://www.armstrongbradylyons.com/library/doj-crypto-forfeiture-25-million"}]}],"sources_used":[{"credibility":2,"name":"US Seizes Over $25 Million in Crypto From Southeast Asian Pig Butchering Rings — BigGo Finance","type":"news_article","url":"https://finance.biggo.com/news/e250dbd7-84a6-4ddb-9ade-8c858bc49713"},{"credibility":2,"name":"DOJ's $25 Million Crypto Forfeiture: Five Civil Complaints, Frozen Tether, No Defendants — Armstrong & Bradylyons PLLC","type":"other","url":"https://www.armstrongbradylyons.com/library/doj-crypto-forfeiture-25-million"},{"credibility":2,"name":"DOJ Sues $25M in USDT Tied to Pig-Butchering Rings — ScamWatchHQ","type":"news_article","url":"https://scamwatchhq.com/doj-25-million-usdt-civil-forfeiture-suing-the-money-2026/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"US authorities recover over $25M from crypto fraud operations in Scam Center Strike Force — Cryptonews.net","type":"news_article","url":"https://cryptonews.net/news/security/33182595/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"US seizes over $25 million in crypto from Southeast Asian scam networks — Cryptopolitan","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.cryptopolitan.com/us-seizes-crypto-from-asian-scam-networks/"},{"credibility":1,"name":"D.C. Scam Center Strike Force Seizures of Cryptocurrency from Chinese Transnational Criminals Tops $580 Million — U.S. Secret Service","type":"regulatory","url":"https://www.secretservice.gov/newsroom/releases/2026/02/dc-scam-center-strike-force-seizures-cryptocurrency-chinese-transnational"},{"credibility":1,"name":"D.C. Scam Center Strike Force Seizures of Cryptocurrency Tops $580 Million — DOJ USAO-DC","type":"regulatory","url":"https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/pr/dc-scam-center-strike-force-seizures-cryptocurrency-chinese-transnational-criminals-tops"},{"credibility":1,"name":"D.C. Scam Center Strike Force Seizures Top $580 Million — IRS Criminal Investigation","type":"regulatory","url":"https://www.irs.gov/compliance/criminal-investigation/dc-scam-center-strike-force-seizures-of-cryptocurrency-from-chinese-transnational-criminals-tops-580-million"},{"credibility":1,"name":"US Attorney's Office EDNC Announces Seizure of $61 Million in Cryptocurrency — DOJ","type":"regulatory","url":"https://www.justice.gov/usao-ednc/pr/us-attorneys-office-ednc-announces-seizure-61-million-dollars-worth-cryptocurrency"},{"credibility":2,"name":"DOJ Seizes USD 61 Million Tied to Pig Butchering Scam in North Carolina — TRM Labs","type":"research","url":"https://www.trmlabs.com/resources/blog/doj-seizes-usd-61-million-tied-to-pig-butchering-scam-in-north-carolina"},{"credibility":1,"name":"Largest Ever Seizure of Funds Related to Crypto Confidence Scams — DOJ USAO-DC (June 2025 action)","type":"regulatory","url":"https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/pr/largest-ever-seizure-funds-related-crypto-confidence-scams"},{"credibility":1,"name":"DOJ seizes record $225 million in crypto tied to global pig butchering scams — NBC News","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/doj-seizes-record-225-million-crypto-tied-global-pig-butchering-scams-rcna213790"},{"credibility":2,"name":"The 2026 Pig Butchering Reckoning: Inside the Year's Biggest Crypto Scam Crackdowns — CryptoTimes","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.cryptotimes.io/2026/05/05/2026-pig-butchering-crypto-scam-crackdowns/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Global Crackdown Arrests 276, Shuts 9 Crypto Scam Centers, Seizes $701M — The Hacker News","type":"news_article","url":"https://thehackernews.com/2026/05/global-crackdown-arrests-276-shuts-9.html"},{"credibility":2,"name":"276 arrested as crypto scams surge in 2026 — AMBCrypto","type":"news_article","url":"https://ambcrypto.com/276-arrested-as-crypto-scams-surge-in-2026-millions-lost-to-pig-butchering/"},{"credibility":1,"name":"DOJ announces largest-ever crypto seizure related to pig butchering scams — The Hill","type":"news_article","url":"https://thehill.com/business/5358442-doj-crypto-seizure-pig-butchering-scams/"},{"credibility":1,"name":"New Scam Center Strike Force Battles Southeast Asian Crypto Investment Fraud — DOJ USAO-DC","type":"regulatory","url":"https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/pr/new-scam-center-strike-force-battles-southeast-asian-crypto-investment-fraud-targeting"}],"summary":"On July 21, 2026, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia and the U.S. Secret Service Washington Field Office filed five civil forfeiture complaints in federal court seeking to recover more than $25 million in USDT traced to pig butchering fraud schemes operated from Southeast Asia. The filings, which proceed against the cryptocurrency assets themselves and name no individual defendants, targeted funds linked to romance scams, approval phishing, and fake investment platforms that defrauded more than 470 identified victims across the United States and Canada. The action is part of the broader DC Scam Center Strike Force, launched in November 2025, which had restrained or seized more than $832 million in cryptocurrency from Chinese transnational criminal organizations by June 2026.","timeline":[{"date":"2025-06-18","event":"USAO-DC files civil forfeiture complaint targeting more than $225.3 million in cryptocurrency linked to pig butchering — the largest cryptocurrency seizure in U.S. Secret Service history at that time. At least 400 suspected victims worldwide. FBI, Secret Service, and Tether cooperated. (Separate from the July 2026 action.)","source":"NBC News / DOJ USAO-DC press release","source_url":"https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/doj-seizes-record-225-million-crypto-tied-global-pig-butchering-scams-rcna213790"},{"date":"2025-11-01","event":"U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro launches the DC Scam Center Strike Force to target cryptocurrency investment fraud linked to Chinese transnational criminal organizations operating in Southeast Asia.","source":"DOJ USAO-DC / Cryptopolitan","source_url":"https://www.cryptopolitan.com/us-seizes-crypto-from-asian-scam-networks/"},{"date":"2026-01-01","event":"DC Scam Center Strike Force reports approximately $402 million in digital assets recovered from pig butchering networks since launch.","source":"DOJ / Secret Service","source_url":"https://www.secretservice.gov/newsroom/releases/2026/02/dc-scam-center-strike-force-seizures-cryptocurrency-chinese-transnational"},{"date":"2026-02-25","event":"U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina announces the seizure of $61 million in USDT linked to pig butchering fraud, supported by HSI Raleigh and TRM Labs blockchain tracing. Separate from the DC District action.","source":"DOJ USAO-EDNC / TRM Labs","source_url":"https://www.justice.gov/usao-ednc/pr/us-attorneys-office-ednc-announces-seizure-61-million-dollars-worth-cryptocurrency"},{"date":"2026-02-26","event":"DOJ and the Secret Service announce that the DC Scam Center Strike Force has frozen and seized more than $580 million in cryptocurrency from Chinese transnational criminal organizations in its first three months of operation.","source":"U.S. Secret Service / IRS Criminal Investigation / DOJ USAO-DC","source_url":"https://www.secretservice.gov/newsroom/releases/2026/02/dc-scam-center-strike-force-seizures-cryptocurrency-chinese-transnational"},{"date":"2026-03-16","event":"Operation Atlantic: Secret Service, UK National Crime Agency, Ontario Provincial Police, and Ontario Securities Commission identify 20,000+ cryptocurrency wallet addresses across 30 countries, freeze $12 million, and identify $33 million linked to approval phishing investment fraud.","source":"The 2026 Pig Butchering Reckoning — CryptoTimes","source_url":"https://www.cryptotimes.io/2026/05/05/2026-pig-butchering-crypto-scam-crackdowns/"},{"date":"2026-04-23","event":"Scam Center Strike Force targets Huang Xingshan and Jiang Wen Jie (Shunda compound, Burma); 503 fake investment websites seized; $701.96 million in cryptocurrency restrained; Telegram recruitment channel with 6,000+ followers seized.","source":"The 2026 Pig Butchering Reckoning — CryptoTimes","source_url":"https://www.cryptotimes.io/2026/05/05/2026-pig-butchering-crypto-scam-crackdowns/"},{"date":"2026-04-29","event":"International operation announced: FBI, Dubai Police, Chinese Ministry of Public Security, and Thai authorities arrest 276 suspects (275 in Dubai, 1 in Thailand). Six defendants charged in Southern District of California. Nine scam centers shut down. $701 million in cryptocurrency restrained globally.","source":"The Hacker News / FBI / DOJ","source_url":"https://thehackernews.com/2026/05/global-crackdown-arrests-276-shuts-9.html"},{"date":"2026-07-21","event":"USAO-DC and U.S. Secret Service Washington Field Office file five civil forfeiture complaints in U.S. District Court for DC targeting more than $25 million in USDT linked to pig butchering schemes. More than 470 identified victims across the U.S. and Canada. No individual defendants named. Funds traced to laundering networks in Southeast Asia with IP addresses in China, Malaysia, and Cambodia.","source":"DOJ USAO-DC / BigGo Finance / ScamWatchHQ / Armstrong & Bradylyons","source_url":"https://finance.biggo.com/news/e250dbd7-84a6-4ddb-9ade-8c858bc49713"}]},"v":1}

   Verify offline (run on your own machine)

   python -m src.verify_decision 4893061a-a7ac-430d-b837-5e57b2daf5c1copy