The U.S. Department of Justice has filed a civil forfeiture complaint seeking to seize more than $225.3 million in cryptocurrency, the largest seizure of funds linked to crypto confidence scams in U.S. Secret Service history. According to the complaint, the funds are alleged proceeds of large-scale cryptocurrency investment fraud schemes—often called “crypto confidence” or “pig butchering” scams—in which victims were deceived into believing they were making legitimate crypto investments. Investigators from the U.S. Secret Service and FBI used blockchain analysis and other techniques to trace the assets through a sophisticated laundering network that executed hundreds of thousands of transactions across numerous wallets and accounts. The seized assets consist primarily of USDT (Tether), roughly $225.36 million held across multiple wallets that formed part of a broader blockchain-based money laundering infrastructure. The network allegedly dispersed and consolidated fraud proceeds through dozens of intermediary wallets before concentrating them into seven high‑value USDT wallet groups, which were then frozen with the cooperation of Tether and the crypto exchange OKX. The complaint states that the funds are tied to more than 400 suspected victims, and the government is seeking forfeiture under U.S. anti–money laundering statutes so the assets can be held and potentially used for victim restitution once the case is adjudicated. This action underscores growing U.S. enforcement focus on investment fraud and pig-butchering schemes in the crypto sector, which the FBI estimates caused billions of dollars in losses in 2024 alone. Authorities characterize the case as a significant milestone in using blockchain forensics to disrupt transnational fraud networks and recover stolen assets at scale, and have urged individuals who believe they are victims of the scams described in the complaint to file reports via the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), referencing the case-specific code provided by DOJ.

AI-generated background, compiled from web sources — not editorial content.

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