FinCEN flags $12.7B tied to Southeast Asia crypto investment scams

The U.S. Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network has linked approximately $12.7 billion in suspicious financial activity to digital asset investment scams largely run from overseas scam compounds, based on nearly 34,000 reports filed over more than two years.

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network said Thursday that its analysis covered 33,904 Bank Secrecy Act reports filed by roughly 1,300 financial institutions between Sept. 8, 2023, and Dec. 31, 2025, giving regulators a view of how money moved through banks, crypto businesses and securities firms as victims were drawn into fraudulent investment schemes.

FinCEN described the operations as digital asset investment scams, sometimes called pig butchering, romance baiting or cryptocurrency confidence schemes. Criminal groups commonly use fake identities and relationships to gain victims’ trust before directing them toward fraudulent crypto investments.

The activity identified in the filings reached victims across all 50 states and several U.S. territories.

Crypto firms and banks flagged billions in scam activity

Money services businesses submitted 55% of the reports reviewed by FinCEN and identified $5.5 billion in suspicious activity. Most of the firms in that group were digital asset businesses.

Banks accounted for 41% of filings and reported $6.4 billion, while securities firms and other financial institutions made up the remaining share, with $784.5 million flagged.

Reporting increased throughout the period covered by the analysis. The monthly number of filings rose by an average of 10.9%, while the amount of reported suspicious activity increased by an average of 18%.

In October 2023, financial institutions submitted 590 reports involving $485.7 million. By December 2025, the monthly total had climbed to 2,482 reports covering $833.5 million.

FinCEN cautioned against treating the $12.7 billion total as a direct measure of victim losses. Suspicious activity reports can include attempted transactions, transfers reported by more than one institution and mistakes by filers, creating the possibility of double counting. The rise in filings may partly stem from increased use of the search term introduced in the agency’s 2023 alert on pig butchering scams.

Scam operators relied on familiar digital assets instead of creating tokens specifically for the fraud. At least 22 cryptocurrencies appeared in the filings, with Ethereum, Tether’s USDT and Circle’s USDC among the most commonly identified assets.

Regardless of what victims initially purchased, blockchain analysis cited by FinCEN found that proceeds were usually converted into stablecoins, almost exclusively USDT. The funds were then routed through decentralized finance protocols or digital asset exchanges outside the United States.

Repeated use of the same collection addresses provided another trail. Some financial institutions identified addresses receiving transfers from multiple victims at the same time, helping them connect seemingly separate transactions to the same scam network.

The use of stablecoins has appeared repeatedly in enforcement actions involving the same type of fraud. As crypto.news previously reported, the U.S. Secret Service worked with Coinbase to trace and recover USDT tied to pig butchering schemes in 2025. The Department of Justice sought the seizure of $225 million in USDT after investigators linked the funds to Southeast Asian fraud networks.

FinCEN finds older Americans were not disproportionately targeted

Older Americans appeared in roughly one-quarter of the suspicious activity reports, close to their share of the U.S. population.

FinCEN found elder exploitation in around 25% of the filings, compared with the 24.4% share of the population aged 60 or older. Based on that comparison, the agency concluded that older adults were neither disproportionately victimized nor disproportionately deprived of funds within the dataset.

Financial damage could still be severe. The FBI recorded $4.8 billion in fraud losses among Americans over 60 in 2024, a figure later cited by senators who introduced the GUARD Act to provide resources for blockchain tracing by local law enforcement.

Victims frequently financed transfers with money outside their regular savings. FinCEN found cases involving retirement accounts, home equity lines of credit, second mortgages and personal loans. One woman transferred nearly $640,000 from her retirement fund, while another victim lost more than $1 million over six months.

The agency devoted part of its analysis to the psychological toll of the schemes, warning that some victims may face a risk of self-harm after discovering that their money has been stolen. FinCEN directed people in crisis to the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.

Southeast Asia scam compounds rely on trafficked workers

Many of the criminal organizations identified by authorities operate from industrial-scale compounds in Cambodia, Laos and Burma, where workers can be recruited through fake employment offers before being confined and forced to participate in fraud.

The United Nations has estimated that hundreds of thousands of people have been trafficked into such operations, while Interpol has warned that the scam-center model has spread outside Southeast Asia.

Crypto transactions connected with human trafficking rose sharply in 2025. A February 2026 Chainalysis study found that crypto-linked trafficking payments increased 85% during the year across tracked services, including labor recruiters associated with Southeast Asian scam compounds. Stablecoins, laundering networks and regional escrow platforms were among the payment channels identified by the blockchain analytics firm.

Authorities have since pursued the financial infrastructure supporting the compounds. In March, the FBI and Thai police froze roughly $580 million in cryptocurrency and seized around 8,000 phones in an operation against organized pig butchering groups accused of targeting Americans.

The networks can extend beyond the people directly contacting victims. FinCEN said scam-center operators use online “guarantee marketplaces” to buy services including phishing tools, online accounts and money laundering. Professional money launderers can create shell companies and financial accounts, recruit money mules and route stablecoins through exchanges outside the United States.

Cambodia-based Huione became one of the most prominent examples of that infrastructure. Chinese authorities took custody of a former Huione Group chairman in April after the network had been linked to more than $89 billion in crypto transactions. U.S. authorities had previously designated Huione Group a primary money laundering concern over its alleged role in processing proceeds connected to Southeast Asian scams and other illicit activity.

U.S. authorities have expanded efforts to recover scam proceeds

American agencies have increasingly used blockchain tracing, asset freezes and cooperation with foreign law enforcement to pursue funds tied to the compounds.

FinCEN said its Rapid Response Program has interdicted $1.8 billion since 2015 and recovered just over $1 billion for 5,790 U.S. victims. The program allows the agency to quickly share financial intelligence with foreign financial intelligence units and seek intervention before suspected fraudulent transfers are moved beyond recovery.

The agency’s latest alert gives financial institutions indicators for identifying transactions connected to scam centers and encourages voluntary information sharing under Section 314(b) of the USA PATRIOT Act. FinCEN said such sharing can help institutions identify activity involving money laundering while providing qualifying participants with liability protections.

The scale of enforcement has continued to rise in 2026. U.S. prosecutors have pursued networks accused of combining investment fraud with forced labor, including the Cambodia-based Prince Group. Authorities sought forfeiture of more than 127,000 Bitcoin linked to its founder Chen Zhi, while prosecutors alleged workers confined in scam compounds were forced to contact prospective victims and direct them toward fraudulent cryptocurrency investments.

In January, Cambodian authorities detained Chen and transferred him to China. U.S. and U.K. authorities have accused him and Prince Group of involvement in cryptocurrency fraud, money laundering and forced-labor operations, allegations the company has denied.

FinCEN urged victims of cyber-enabled fraud to contact their financial institutions immediately and file complaints with the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center or their nearest U.S. Secret Service field office.