U.S. government agencies are stepping up their response to overseas scams that seek to trick people into sending cryptocurrency, and the Treasury Department announced a Scam Center Strike Force on Wednesday even as it signaled its latest effort to attack a Burmese operation that was pursuing Americans with bogus investment schemes.
U.S. authorities, including the Justice Department, are mobilizing the strike force to combat so-called “pig slaughter,” often coordinated by massive organized crime operations in places like Burma, Cambodia, Laos and the Philippines. The most recent case involved the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioning armed groups, companies and individuals in Myanmar associated with the Karen Democratic Benevolent Army and scam centers that were allegedly backed by Chinese criminal organizations.
The strike force, led by the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, aims to dismantle transnational criminal enterprises in Southeast Asia that have stolen tens of billions from Americans, much of which has gone unreported. In this practice, teams of agents (often forced to do so through human trafficking) work at factory scale to trick people into making fraudulent investments or sending funds to fake romantic partners.
“The Administration will continue to use every tool we have to pursue these cybercriminals – wherever they operate – and to protect American families from their exploitation,” Treasury Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence John Hurley said in a statement.
The strike force plans to tap various parts of the federal government with oversight tasks related to this area, including the Department of Justice, the Department of the Treasury, the Department of State, and national law enforcement agencies.
“The scale is staggering,” Ari Redbord, global head of policy and government affairs at TRM Laboratories, said of the global criminal enterprises involved in pig slaughter. “The Department of Justice’s Scam Center Strike Force reflects a hard truth: No agency can tackle this alone.”
Similarly, the Justice Department has previously established a health care strike group and a commercial fraud task force.
Last month, US authorities went after the Prince Group, which had allegedly run an operation in Cambodia, and the Justice Department made what it said was its largest ever seizure of 127,271 bitcoins. . The action was coordinated between the DOJ and Treasury.
In Myanmar, U.S. authorities linked the development of scam centers to other sanctioned entities, including Trans Asia International Holding Group Thai Company Ltd. (Trans Asia), Troth Star Co. Ltd. (Troth Star), and Thai national Chamu Sawang. The sanctions accused them of being linked to Chinese organized crime, and authorities said the proceeds would go to finance Burma’s civil war.
