Overview
- Announced by the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, the Strike Force brings together the DOJ, FBI, Secret Service, Treasury and other agencies to pursue leaders of transnational scam networks.
- Treasury’s OFAC issued new sanctions targeting Burma-linked actors associated with the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army, two companies and a Thai national tied to cyber scam compounds.
- Officials said the sanctioned network has used violence and forced labor in scam centers, underscoring the human‑trafficking dimension of the fraud industry.
- Jeanine Pirro tied the schemes to organized Chinese crime groups and said Americans may have lost up to $135 billion in 2024 to these operations.
- Recent enforcement included the DOJ’s seizure of roughly $14 billion in bitcoin from an alleged Cambodia-based network, plus $400 million already seized by the D.C. office and a newly revealed $80 million that authorities plan to return to victims.