U.S. authorities seize more than $25 million in crypto tied to fraud probes

U.S. prosecutors filed five civil forfeiture complaints on July 21 seeking roughly $26.4 million in cryptocurrency traced through separate international fraud investigations involving fake investment platforms, romance scams and a recovery scam. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia said one probe traced more than 270 suspected victim transactions tied to fraudulent investment platforms, while another involved more than 200 romance-scam victims and hundreds of intermediary addresses used to commingle funds. Across all five cases, the Justice Department said launderers were predominantly located in Southeast Asia, with associated IP addresses in China, Malaysia and Cambodia. The smallest case seeks about $285,000 from a repeat-victimization scheme in which a person who had already lost money to an unrelated fraud was later charged fees by scammers falsely claiming they had recovered the stolen funds. The filings are part of a civil judicial forfeiture process that allows authorities to freeze suspected criminal proceeds and ask a court to transfer ownership of the assets without first obtaining a criminal conviction, though prosecutors must still prove the property’s connection to criminal activity by a preponderance of the evidence. DOJ described the five seizures as part of more than $800 million recovered through the Scam Center Strike Force, while a separate U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia disruption-week notice likewise said task force recoveries have topped $800 million, underscoring that the department’s reported recoveries and restraints have reached the hundreds of millions even as final forfeiture, suspect identification and victim repayment remain unresolved.