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U.S. seeks forfeiture of more than $25M in crypto tied to scams
The DOJ filed five civil forfeiture complaints, including one seeking about $12.1 million linked to romance schemes that defrauded more than 200 victims.
Cointelegraph reports that U.S. prosecutors are seeking more than $25 million in cryptocurrency allegedly connected to international fraud and money laundering networks tied to romance, investment, and “recovery” scams.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia and the U.S. Secret Service’s Washington Field Office, the DOJ filed five civil forfeiture complaints for crypto assets recovered through separate investigations by the Cyber Fraud Task Force.
The largest complaint seeks about $12.1 million tied to romance schemes that, prosecutors say, defrauded more than 200 victims, with proceeds moved through intermediary addresses and commingled with other victims’ funds. A separate complaint seeks $10.4 million linked to more than 270 suspected victim transactions, and three smaller cases involve fake investment accounts and a secondary scam offering to recover previously stolen funds.
Prosecutors said the alleged launderers were predominantly located in Southeast Asia, with related IP addresses in China, Malaysia, and Cambodia. The cases follow an Interpol-coordinated operation targeting social engineering scams and laundering networks, Operation First Light 2026, which involved 97 countries and territories and resulted in 5,811 arrests, according to Cointelegraph.