Cnn
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The American police have seized more than $ 225 million in cryptocurrency would have stolen from dozens of American victims as part of a sophisticated investment scam, the Ministry of Justice announced on Wednesday.
It is the greatest seizure of stolen funds in so-called “cryptographic confidence” scams, which fits people to invest in fraudulent cryptocurrency regimes, the ministry said.
The scam assigned more than 400 people worldwide, including dozens of Americans, and caused millions of dollars in losses, according to a complaint not sealed on Wednesday. According to the Ministry of Justice.
The American government now has the possession of the stolen crypto and will work to return as much as possible to the victims, Shawn Bradstreet, a special agent responsible for the secret service, during a press conference on Wednesday.
Losses against crypto investment scams have increased in recent years. Victims reported According to the FBI, nearly $ 4 billion in investment loss linked to the crypto in 2023, or $ 2.57 billion in 2022. This number increased to $ 5.8 billion in 2024.
The FBI and the secret services are trying to do more to ring the alarm than crypto investment scams could ruin the lives of Americans and those of their loved ones. Cnn reported Last year on an American in the 80s who committed suicide after losing all his savings because of the crooks.
A large volume of cryptographic confidence scams – also called “pig butcher” – are led by fraudsters in Southeast Asia, according to American police. A CNN investigation has retraced some of the large-compound patterns along the myanmar-Thailand border.
In this case, the investigators retraced at least part of the fraudulent activity in the Philippines.
“These scams attack confidence, often leading to extreme financial difficulties for the victims,” said Bradstreet, the secret service agent, in a statement.
For some US officials of law enforcement, Wednesday’s repression is a welcome sign that the Trump administration will continue to pursue prolific networks of cryptographic crooks.
An April Prosecutor General Memo, Todd Blanche, accused the Biden administration of having used prosecution to impose regulations on the cryptocurrency industry, which raises concerns among certain law enforcement agents that the new management of the department would not pursue cryptographic scams.
The memo has also dissolved the national team of application of the cryptocurrency of the Ministry of Justice, which the Biden administration created in 2022 to continue a criminal improper use of the crypto and other digital assets.
But Jeanine Pirro, US interim lawyer for the Columbia district, said on a press conference on Wednesday that prosecutors would pursue the crooks.
“This is a non -regulated far West,” said Pirro about crime linked to crypto. “But it is not only an unregulated Far West. It is North Wild, the East and the South.”