U.S. Moves to Seize Record $12B in Bitcoin from Global ‘Pig Butchering’ Scam After Joint Crackdown

The United States has announced the largest-ever cryptocurrency seizure tied to international online scams, in a sweeping crackdown that exposes a vast global fraud and human trafficking ￰4￱ prosecutors and financial regulators revealed coordinated actions between the Department of Justice (DOJ), the U. S. Treasury, and authorities in the United Kingdom, targeting a Cambodia-based conglomerate known as Prince Holding Group and its chairman, Chen Zhi, also known as ￰5￱ filings unsealed in the Eastern District of New York reveal that ￰6￱ are seeking the forfeiture of 127,000 Bitcoin held in wallets tied to Chen and his ￰7￱ DOJ described the network as one of the most sophisticated transnational scam operations in Asia, with billions laundered through shell companies, mining operations, and crypto exchanges worldwide.

Background: How a Cambodian Conglomerate Became a Global Crypto Fraud Empire Chen, 38, a Chinese-born businessman who renounced his citizenship years ago, founded Prince Holding Group in 2015. Officially, the firm operated in real estate, finance, and hospitality across more than 30 countries, but prosecutors say it evolved into a criminal enterprise built on deception and ￰8￱ to court documents, Prince Holding Group lured thousands of workers to Cambodia with false job offers, only to trap them in heavily guarded ￰9￱ to online investment scams have steadily increased over the last several years, totaling over $16.6 billion. Today, the ￰10￱ ￰11￱ taken the largest action ever targeting cybercriminal networks in Southeast Asia, some of which engage in human trafficking and… — Treasury Department (@USTreasury) October 14, 2025 Inside, victims were forced to operate “pig butchering” scams, a form of long-term online fraud in which targets are groomed over time before being tricked into investing in fake crypto trading ￰12￱ victims deposited funds, the sites ￰13￱ say the funds from these schemes were laundered through an intricate web of more than 100 shell and holding companies ￰14￱ there, proceeds were routed through crypto exchanges and mining operations, eventually converted into Bitcoin, and stored in private wallets controlled by Chen and his ￰15￱ May 2021 and August 2022, investigators traced at least $18 million from over 250 ￰16￱ through shell entities operating in Brooklyn and Queens.) simultaneously announced sanctions against 146 people and entities tied to Prince Group, labeling the network a transnational criminal organization engaged in fraud, extortion, and human ￰17￱ of addresses cited in the court filing ￰0￱ ￰18￱ — Aggr News (@AggrNews) October 14, 2025 The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) also targeted the Cambodia-based Huione Group , accusing it of laundering at least $4 billion in illicit proceeds, including funds from North Korea-linked cyber ￰19￱ U.

S. Treasury’s financial crimes arm has proposed removing the Huione Group from the US financial system for its alleged involvement in Lazarus-linked crypto laundering. #FinCEN #HuioneGroup #CryptoMoneyLaundering ￰1￱ — ￰20￱ (@cryptonews) May 2, 2025 Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stated that the measures represent a decisive step in addressing a surge in online investment scams that have resulted in over $16 billion in total losses for ￰21￱ described the coordinated actions as “a global response to a global crime,” emphasizing the role of cross-border intelligence sharing and joint enforcement with the U. K., which also imposed sanctions on Chen and several Prince Holding Group ￰22￱ Holding Group’s operations reportedly extended across multiple compounds in Cambodia, including those operating under names such as Jin Bei Casino and Golden Fortune ￰23￱ said these sites were connected to forced labor, extortion, and even murder, with trafficked workers made to run high-volume scams under constant surveillance and ￰24￱ investigation also sheds light on a growing intersection between human exploitation and cryptocurrency-based fraud in Southeast ￰25￱ rights organizations have long warned about forced labor compounds across the region, where victims are trapped in scam operations targeting global ￰26￱ Billion-Dollar Pig-Butchering War Goes Global: What Happened?

The latest crackdown builds on a series of global enforcement efforts to combat “pig butchering” scams, named after the method of “fattening up” victims through trust before defrauding ￰27￱ August, stablecoin issuer Tether froze nearly $50 million in USDT connected to a Southeast Asia-based ring, working with Chainalysis, Binance, OKX, and local law enforcement. @Tether_to , @chainalysis , @binance , and @OKX have worked with APAC law enforcement to freeze $49.6M in USDT traced to a global “pig butchering” scam ring. #Tether #pigbutchering ￰2￱ — ￰28￱ (@cryptonews) August 28, 2025 That operation followed a 2023 case in which $225 million in USDT was seized in coordination with the ￰29￱ Service, then the largest crypto recovery in the agency’s ￰30￱ companies have increasingly joined in these ￰31￱ recently joined T3+ , a global anti-crime alliance launched by TRON, Tether, and TRM Labs, which has frozen more than $250 million in illicit assets. @Binance has joined the new T3+ crime-fighting alliance — and in its first case, helped freeze $6M from a pig butchering scam. #CryptoCrime #Binance ￰3￱ — ￰32￱ (@cryptonews) August 12, 2025 Its first joint success recovered $6 million linked to another pig-butchering ￰33￱ has also assisted in tracing stolen funds tied to international trafficking ￰34￱ to U.

S. data, losses from pig-butchering scams surged to $3.6 billion in 2024 , a 40% increase from the previous ￰35￱ say the networks are growing more sophisticated, blending crypto fraud, organized crime, and human trafficking at an unprecedented scale.