The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has taken significant enforcement action by filing a civil forfeiture complaint to seize over $225 million in cryptocurrency connected to a large-scale confidence fraud targeting more than 400 victims globally. The funds, primarily held in Tether's USDT stablecoin, were tracked and frozen through blockchain analytics in a complex laundering network spanning numerous wallets and platforms. This case represents the largest crypto seizure ever conducted by the U.S. Secret Service.
Law enforcement agencies, including the FBI and the U.S. Secret Service, worked alongside Tether, whose real-time transaction monitoring enabled prompt freezing of suspicious assets. Tether reported having blocked over $2.7 billion in USDT tied to criminal activity worldwide to date and has cooperated extensively with more than 255 agencies across 55 countries.
The scam involved sophisticated social engineering tactics known as "pig butchering," where victims were lured into fake cryptocurrency investments, resulting in devastating financial losses—sometimes their entire savings. The DOJ's complaint stresses a continuing commitment to recover stolen assets and prevent further fraud, encouraging victims to report such crimes through the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) portal.
This enforcement action fits into broader U.S. strategies to disrupt crypto crime networks and strengthen collaboration with blockchain firms. The DOJ's Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section and coordination with national law enforcement mark sustained efforts toward combating and recovering losses from crypto scams, which accounted for billions in financial damage in 2024 alone.