US Department of Justice cracks down on Xinbi scam service marketplace, seizes $52 million in crypto assets.

According to a U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announcement, the DOJ’s Fraud Strike Force and the U.S. Department of the Treasury carried out coordinated law enforcement actions against Xinbi Guarantee, seizing and restricting over $52 million in crypto assets in a single day, bringing the total value of assets the strike force has restricted to roughly $938 million. Tether provided proactive assistance to the investigation. The DOJ alleges Xinbi operates primarily as an illegal fraud service marketplace on Telegram, offering custom investment scam websites and money laundering services to fraud rings, as well as recruiting human trafficking victims to work at scam hubs in Southeast Asia. Law enforcement has seized Xinbi’s Telegram channels and two crypto wallets holding a combined approximately $12 million, while restricting access to an additional 47 related wallets. The U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) also designated Xinbi as a significant transnational criminal organization and sanctioned two additional entities that supported it. The strike force also assisted Madagascar in shutting down 13 scam hubs run by Chinese criminal groups, seizing over 3,200 electronic devices and leading to nearly 400 arrests in the country.