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Interpol says a fraud-linked wallet processed over $122.5M in 10 months

Interpol detailed how cross-chain token swaps were used to obscure a romance-scam money-laundering trail, as part of a coordinated operation across 97 countries.

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Interpol said a crypto wallet linked to a 20-year-old fraud suspect processed more than $122.5 million over 10 months, according to its July 9 account of Operation First Light 2026.

Interpol said Thai police arrested two people in a money-laundering investigation tied to romance-scam proceeds that moved through crypto and cross-chain token swaps. The reported figure reflects value that passed through the wallet during the period, rather than a single end balance, and Interpol did not identify the wallet, the assets, or the chains used.

The cross-chain swaps, Interpol said, were used to obscure the financial trail. Interpol noted that as laundering flows span multiple blockchains, investigators must piece together records from different ledgers and services before funds reach an off-ramp tied to a real-world identity, with each transition adding another technical and legal handoff.

Interpol said Operation First Light ran from Jan. 15 through April 30 after an initial intelligence-gathering phase, involving intelligence sharing, raids, and account and wallet freezes. It also reported 5,811 arrests, $293 million in intercepted illicit assets, and more than 142,000 identified victims, while pointing to ongoing challenges in tracing value as it changes across chains.

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