The United States Department of Justice initiated an enforcement action aiming to confiscate over $225 million worth of cryptocurrency allegedly connected to widespread pig butchering scams.
On June 18, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced the filing of a civil complaint in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The action seeks to forfeit nearly $225.3 million in cryptocurrency allegedly tied to extensive digital asset investment fraud operations.
Tether Assisted in Freezing $225 Million in Assets
According to the Department of Justice, the majority of the confiscated funds were held in Tether, a popular stablecoin commonly used in digital asset transactions.
Tether, which issues the U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin, confirmed its cooperation with law enforcement in the asset seizure. Authorities from the U.S. Secret Service and the Federal Bureau of Investigation identified the millions in USDT as proceeds originating from cryptocurrency fraud schemes.
The Department of Justice stated that the funds had connections to a large-scale pig butchering operation that victimized individuals globally. Officials identified the wallet addresses containing the confiscated assets as components of what they called “a complex blockchain-enabled money laundering structure.”
Blockchain Analytics Uncover Massive Fraud Scheme
However, in an effort to obscure the flow of illicit funds, the criminals behind the cryptocurrency investment scam strategically employed a sophisticated network of transactions.
However, officials utilized blockchain analysis tools to track the transactions and connect them to the deceitful scheme. The Department of Justice reported that the scammers had defrauded over 400 individuals worldwide.
“Under my leadership, with the support of President Trump and Attorney General Bondi, the U.S. Attorney’s office for the District of Columbia is taking a leading role in the fight against crypto-confidence scams, partnering with law enforcement throughout the country to seize and forfeit stolen funds and rip them from the hands of foreign criminals, all with the eye toward making victims whole,” U.S. Attorney Pirro said in a statement.
A prior report released by the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center highlighted that unsuspecting individuals lost more than $5.8 billion in 2024 due to fraudulent cryptocurrency investment schemes.
An April 2025 report by the FBI estimated that crypto-related scams led to losses exceeding $9 billion in 2024, with pig butchering schemes responsible for more than half of the total amount.
In May 2025, the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control placed sanctions on a Myanmar warlord and his militia, accusing them of crimes like money laundering, human trafficking, and crypto scams related to pig butchering schemes.
