An international task force led by the FBI has dismantled nine scam centers and arrested 276 people involved in fraudulent crypto investment schemes.
An international task force led by the FBI has arrested 276 people and dismantled nine scam centers used to orchestrate cryptocurrency investment schemes, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Wednesday. The operation involved law enforcement agencies from Dubai, Thailand, and China, with the goal of targeting transnational criminal networks specializing in so-called “pig butchering” scams.
The Dubai Police arrested 275 individuals, three of whom have been indicted in the Southern District of California on charges of wire fraud and money laundering. Thai authorities separately arrested one additional suspect. The investigations began last year after FBI agents based in San Diego identified the key suspects and entities involved in running the fraudulent compounds.
According to the Department of Justice statement, the group recruited staff to work at three companies – Ko Thet Company, Sanduo Group, and Giant Company – identified by authorities as the operational hubs of the scams. The model followed was the classic “pig butchering” playbook: scammers would build a relationship of trust with victims over time, then convince them to invest in fictitious crypto opportunities. Victims’ funds were funneled through fraudulent platforms, transferred to accounts controlled by the scammers, and then laundered through additional crypto wallets.
Authorities stated that investigators identified “millions of dollars” in losses tied to these cross-border schemes. “Scammers who target Americans from abroad cannot operate with impunity, no matter where in the world they reside,” said Deputy Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “The organizers of scam centers and the scammers who defraud Americans and others will answer for their crimes in American courts and courts around the world.”
U.S. Attorney Adam Gordon for the Southern District of California added: “These scammers thought they were safe on the other side of the world. But their world has changed. Global crime now faces global justice.” The case comes amid growing alarm over cryptocurrency-related fraud, which in 2025 reached a record $11.3 billion in losses, accounting for more than half of the $20.9 billion in total cybercrime losses tracked by the FBI in a report published earlier this month.
