A coordinated international crackdown involving authorities from the United States, China, the United Arab Emirates and Thailand has led to at least 276 arrests, the shutdown of nine cryptocurrency scam centres, and the restraint of more than $701 million, or roughly ₹5,853 crore, in cryptocurrency allegedly tied to money laundering from crypto scams.
International Operation Targets Scam Centres
The operation was led by Dubai Police under the UAE Ministry of Interior, in partnership with the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Chinese Ministry of Public Security. Those arrested include individuals from Burma and Indonesia, who were apprehended by authorities in Dubai and Thailand.
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Thet Min Nyi, 27, Wiliang Awang, 23, Andreas Chandra, 29, Lisa Mariam, 29, and two fugitive co-conspirators have been charged in the United States with federal fraud and money laundering offences.
Assistant Attorney General A. Tyen Duva of the U.S. Justice Department’s Criminal Division said fraudsters targeting Americans from overseas cannot operate with impunity, regardless of where they reside. He said scam centre organizers and fraudsters who defraud Americans and others will face justice in American courts and around the world.
According to the indictment, the defendants allegedly managed, worked for and recruited others to work at three companies named Ko Thet Company, Sanduo Group and Giant Company, which are accused of operating several scam centres. Thet Min Nyi is believed to have been the manager and recruiter for Ko Thet Company.
Pig Butchering Scams and Trafficked Workers
The scams allegedly involved tricking users into giving up money through bogus cryptocurrency investments after building trust over time, often through friendly or romantic relationships. The long-running scheme is known as pig butchering or romance baiting.
The illicit operation was closely linked to human trafficking, with foreign nationals allegedly coerced into running scams under slave-like conditions after being recruited through false offers of high-paying jobs.
The Justice Department said the scammers promoted cryptocurrency investments and assisted victims in setting up accounts and transferring cryptocurrency to investment platforms that were actually false. The alleged scammers also touted their own investment successes and returns, encouraged victims to invest more, and urged them to borrow money from friends and family or take loans to continue investing.
Once funds were transferred to the platforms, the assets were allegedly laundered to other cryptocurrency accounts, including some belonging to the fraudsters. The FBI has notified almost 9,000 victims and saved victims an estimated $562 million, or about ₹4,693 crore, as of April 2026 through Operation Level Up, which began in January 2024 to identify and alert victims of cryptocurrency investment fraud schemes.
Sanctions, Fake Sites and Malware Links
The indictment comes days after the Justice Department charged two Chinese nationals, Jiang Wen Jie, also known as Jiang Nan, and Huang Xingshan, also known as Ah Zhe and Huang Xing Saan, over their alleged role in a major cryptocurrency investment fraud operation connected to the Shunda scam compound in Min Let Pan, Myanmar.
The defendants were accused of planning to open a second scam centre in Cambodia after Burmese authorities seized the first in November 2025. Huang was assessed to have worked at Shunda as a high-level manager and to have personally participated in the physical punishment of trafficked compound workers, while Jiang served as a team leader overseeing workers who specifically targeted American victims. They were arrested by Thai authorities in early 2026 while travelling from Cambodia to Burma.
The crackdown also led to the seizure of a Telegram channel, @pogojobhiring2023, with more than 6,500 followers, allegedly used to recruit human trafficking victims to a scam compound in Cambodia. Authorities also seized a cluster of 503 fake investment websites used to defraud U.S. victims.
Separately, the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned Cambodian Senator Kok An, Cambodian businessman Rithy Raksmei, their associates and related business operations, including holding companies such as K99 Group, for scam centre operations. The State Department announced rewards of up to $10 million, or roughly ₹83.5 crore, for information leading to the seizure or recovery of proceeds linked to the Tai Chang scam centre in Burma.
The report also said Cambodia’s parliament passed its first law dedicated to targeting scam centres operating in the country. The law seeks to prevent scam centres from resurfacing after takedowns and provides prison terms of five to 10 years for those convicted of scams, along with fines of up to $250,000, or about ₹2.09 crore.
The report also linked Cambodian scam compounds to an Android banking trojan operating from multiple locations, including the K99 Triumph City compound owned by Cambodia’s K99 Group. The malware is capable of real-time surveillance, credential theft, data exfiltration and financial fraud, and has reportedly been in use since at least 2023.
Researchers said the operation remains active, registering about 35 new domains each month, including algorithm-generated and lookalike domains impersonating legitimate organisations and government services. In 2025, 400 targeted lure domains were registered and used to deceive and infect victims. The activity has expanded across Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam, while also diversifying into Africa and Latin America.
The developments also come against the backdrop of Operation Atlantic, which froze approximately $12 million, or about ₹100 crore, from a cybercrime operation targeting cryptocurrency and investment scammers through approval phishing. More than 20,000 victims have been identified across 30 countries, including Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States, while authorities have confiscated more than 120 domains and identified an additional $33 million, or roughly ₹276 crore, believed to be linked to global investment fraud schemes.
