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Svmuu News: The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, in conjunction with the U.S. Secret Service’s Washington Field Office, announced that investigations into multiple international cyber fraud cases have led to the seizure of more than $25 million in cryptocurrency. The funds are suspected of originating from cryptocurrency investment scams targeting residents of the United States and Canada.
This operation is part of the U.S. “Scam Center Strike Force.” Launched in 2025 by D.C. Attorney General Jeanine Ferris Pirro, the initiative has recovered more than $800 million in assets to date. U.S. prosecutors stated that on July 21, 2026, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia filed five civil forfeiture complaints with the U.S. District Court, seeking the forfeiture of more than $25 million in cryptocurrency assets recovered during various fraud investigations.
Investigators noted that these cases involve multiple money-laundering networks with victims spanning the globe. Criminal syndicates lured victims into investing through fraudulent cryptocurrency investment platforms and online romance scams, and concealed the sources of funds through multi-layered wallet address transfers and coin mixing operations. The seized funds are linked to five major investigations:
In one case, Canadian law enforcement provided the U.S. Secret Service with wallet addresses suspected of being used to transfer illicit proceeds. Investigators froze the relevant addresses and traced over 270 transactions suspected to be from victims, involving approximately $10.4 million;
The second case involved an online romance scam in which more than 200 victims were defrauded. The illicit funds were transferred through hundreds of intermediary wallet addresses and commingled with funds from other victims, with the total amount involved totaling approximately $12.08 million;
The third case involved a victim in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area who participated in a fraudulent cryptocurrency investment scheme. After failing to withdraw funds, the victim lost contact with the scammers; the amount involved was approximately $1.23 million;
In the fourth case, a victim transferred millions of dollars’ worth of cryptocurrency to a fraudulent investment account; investigators traced a portion of the funds to six wallet addresses and froze approximately $2.39 million;
In the fifth case, scammers posed as an organization that “recover stolen funds” to trick the victim into paying fees, with the amount involved totaling approximately $285,000.
The U.S. Secret Service stated that these cases remain under active investigation, and law enforcement officials are tracking down the suspects behind the fraud network and will cooperate with international law enforcement agencies to hold them accountable.