The U.S. Department of Justice's Scam Center Strike Force announced recoveries of about $580 million in digital assets linked to large, transnational pig‑butchering schemes. The Strike Force, involving DOJ, FBI, Secret Service and IRS‑CI, is focused on dismantling compound‑style operations in Southeast Asia that orchestrate romance-to-investment fraud.

The DOJ's newly established Scam Center Strike Force reported recovering approximately $580 million in digital assets tied to sophisticated pig‑butchering scams, a form of romance‑to‑investment fraud that lures victims into long‑running emotional relationships and coerces large cryptocurrency investments. The recoveries build on prior international seizures and reflect coordinated investigative work with foreign law‑enforcement partners and private‑sector tracing capabilities. The Strike Force, which includes personnel from the DOJ, FBI, Secret Service and IRS Criminal Investigation, is concentrating on dismantling compound‑style operations believed to be based in Southeast Asia that orchestrate scripted social‑engineering, money‑movement layering and conversion into crypto rails. Officials said the asset recoveries both return funds to victims where possible and disrupt financial flows that enable reinvestment and operational scaling. The announcement highlights an intensified U.S. posture combining legal tools, technical tracing, civil‑forfeiture and international cooperation to target the networks, mule infrastructure and payment conduits that sustain high‑value transnational fraud.