A coordinated effort to target international cryptocurrency scammers resulted in about 276 people being arrested, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced April 29.
The agency said the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Dubai Police Department, and the Chinese Ministry of Public Security joined forces to nab the suspects.
Authorities also dismantled at least nine scam centers that were allegedly being used for cryptocurrency investment fraud schemes, the DOJ said, adding those centers were bleeding Americans for millions of dollars.
Three of the defendants were charged in the Southern District of California with federal wire fraud and money laundering, and another individual was arrested by the Royal Thai Police.
The DOJ’s announcement said the indictment, criminal complaints, and court records showed “the defendants charged in San Diego managed, worked for, and recruited others to work at three different ‘companies’ that operated several alleged scam centers: ‘Ko Thet Company,’ ‘Sanduo Group,’ and ‘Giant Company.’”
“All six defendants allegedly engaged in cryptocurrency investment fraud schemes through ‘pig-butchering,’ which is a type of fraud where scammers gain a victim’s trust over time — through friendship or romance — before persuading them to send money to fake investments, which the scammers then take. Scammers entice victims with phony friendship or romance before financially exploiting them,” the agency explained.
The suspects are accused of targeting American citizens and those of other countries by establishing trust and then promoting investments and cryptocurrencies. The suspects then allegedly helped victims set up accounts and transfer the currency to fake investment platforms. They are also accused of pressing the victims to borrow money from their loved ones and take out loans to boost the fake investments. However, the alleged scammers then took control of the funds.
Breitbart News has covered extensively the issue of crime linked to cryptocurrency. In March 2025, the outlet reported the DOJ disrupted a Hamas terrorism financing scheme and seized over $200,000 in cryptocurrency. A year later, the FBI and the French Gendarmerie joined forces to arrest a U.S. government contractor accused of stealing over $46 million in cryptocurrency from the U.S. Marshals Service, per Breitbart News.
More recently, a social media user tricked Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok into helping him scam another chatbot into transferring a huge amount of cryptocurrency via Morse code.
In regard to the international case, Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the DOJ’s Criminal Division said, “Fraudsters who target Americans from overseas cannot operate with impunity, no matter where in the world they reside.”
“The charges and arrests announced today reflect an international consensus that scam centers are unwelcome everywhere and must be rooted out. Scam center organizers and fraudsters who defraud Americans and others will face justice in American courts and in courts around the world. In contemporary society, fraud is borderless, and law enforcement activity to combat it and eliminate it is as well,” he added.
