Treasury's FinCEN Links $13 Billion in Cryptocurrency Fraud to International Crime Operations
The financial watchdog agency disclosed that "transnational criminal organizations" operating from facilities located in Southeast Asia were predominantly responsible for digital asset fraud schemes that targeted United States citizens.
A comprehensive analysis conducted by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) at the United States Department of the Treasury has uncovered $12.7 billion worth of cryptocurrency transactions "perpetrated by overseas scam centers."
In a report published by FinCEN on Thursday, the examination of over 33,000 filed reports spanning the period from September 2023 through December 2025 regarding suspected cryptocurrency fraud schemes uncovered approximately $13 billion in financial transactions. These digital asset-related scam operations encompassed various forms including pig butchering schemes, romance-based fraud, and "cryptocurrency confidence schemes," where victims are deceived and coerced into making crypto investments based on fraudulent promises of substantial financial returns.
"Digital asset investment scams pose one of the most significant fraud threats facing Americans today,"
Gene Lange, performing the duties of Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence
According to FinCEN's findings, these fraudulent operations were predominantly carried out by "transnational criminal organizations" that operate from compound facilities situated throughout Southeast Asia.
Legislative bodies in several of the impacted nations have been working to eliminate these "scam centers." In July, Myanmar's Parliament gave approval to legislative measures that could result in sentences up to life imprisonment for scam center operators who employed violence, torture, and unlawful arrest or detention as methods to coerce individuals into participation, while Cambodia's lawmakers put forward comparable legislation in April, which also incorporated potential prison sentences.