Crypto Crime Hit Hard: $700 Million Frozen By DOJ Strike Force

A US law enforcement task force seized hundreds of fake investment websites and unsealed warrants against two suspects tied to a Burmese crypto scam compound.

The funds were restrained through a combination of voluntary cooperation from crypto exchanges and formal legal processes.

The operation’s reach went beyond asset freezes. Authorities pulled down over 500 fraudulent investment websites that had been used to lure victims into depositing cryptocurrency. Visitors who try to access those domains now see a government seizure notice.

A Telegram channel was also seized. Reports say it had been used to recruit unsuspecting job seekers into a crypto scam center operating in Cambodia — a common tactic in Southeast Asia, where traffickers pose as employers to lure workers into forced labor at fraud compounds.

Two Chinese nationals, Huang Xingshan and Jiang Wen Jie, were named in criminal complaints and arrest warrants unsealed as part of the operation. The pair is accused of running a crypto investment fraud scheme at the Shunda compound in Burma. That facility was seized by the Karen National Liberation Army in November 2025.

The US was not alone in acting Thursday. Singapore’s police force ran a parallel month-long operation from mid-March through mid-April, working alongside Coinbase, Gemini, Coinhako, Independent Reserve, and blockchain analytics companies TRM Labs and Chainalysis.

That effort stopped more than $2.86 million in potential losses and included over 90 direct interventions with scam victims — some by phone, others in person.

The willingness of major crypto platforms to cooperate with law enforcement marks a shift in how these cases are being handled. Blockchain transactions are traceable, and that transparency is increasingly being used against the very criminals who rely on crypto for speed and anonymity.

The scale of the problem is hard to overstate. The FBI received more than a million cybercrime complaints in 2025 alone, with total reported losses hitting more than $20 billion.

The $701 million frozen Thursday, while a significant number, represents a fraction of what has already been lost.

Featured image from Meta, chart from TradingView