The US Department of Justice on Wednesday announced the creation of a new Scam Center Strike Force to combat a surge in cryptocurrency investment fraud by transnational criminal organizations operating out of Southeast Asia.
The interagency task force is designed to investigate, disrupt and prosecute the most egregious schemes, estimated to be defrauding Americans of nearly US$10 billion annually, the department said in a statement.
Criminal networks are running the schemes from compounds in Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar, where fraudulent revenue can account for nearly half of local GDP in some areas.
Photo: AP
People affected are often tricked into transferring funds to fake cryptocurrency Web sites and applications, only to have the money laundered abroad.
The US and China have pressured Southeast Asian nations to crack down on the operations, as people from the two countries have been targeted.
Earlier this week, Thailand extradited at Beijing’s request a Chinese-born Cambodian accused of involvement in the scam operations.
US Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro leaned into the involvement of ethnic Chinese or citizens in the operations, many of whom were pushed out of China amid Beijing’s own pressure on gambling and scams.
“This pandemic is certainly a generational wealth transfer from main street USA into the hands of Chinese organized crime, making it both a national security problem and a homeland security problem,” Pirro said.
The strike force would target US-based infrastructure that facilitates the scams, including Internet service providers and social media accounts used by scammers, and would collaborate with US companies to sever access to the offshore scam centers.
The effort involves the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia and the justice department’s Criminal Division, along with the FBI and the Secret Service.
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