The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia filed five civil forfeiture complaints in federal court Tuesday, seeking to seize more than $25 million in cryptocurrency traced to romance and investment fraud schemes. Civil forfeiture lets prosecutors seize property tied to a crime without a criminal conviction, arguing the money itself is illegal proceeds.
The largest complaint, more than $12 million, stems from an investigation that found more than 200 victims defrauded through online romance scams. A second case seeks $10.4 million tied to fraudulent crypto investment platforms. Investigators with the Secret Service’s Washington Field Office traced the funds to laundering networks with IP addresses in China, Malaysia and Cambodia.
The money is the latest haul for the Scam Center Strike Force, the interagency task force that has recovered more than $800 million in pig-butchering scam proceeds since it went after Southeast Asian scam compounds.
That $800 million figure matters more than any single case. It shows civil forfeiture, historically aimed at drug and racketeering proceeds, has become the default tool for crypto fraud losses since prosecutors can’t extradite scam-center operators sitting in Cambodia or Malaysia. The civil track lets the government grab the money even when the people behind it stay out of reach.
Property owners have a limited window to contest the complaints before the funds are forfeited to the government outright, though the burden falls on them to prove the money isn’t proceeds of crime.
James Okafor