DOJ seeks forfeiture of $225m tied to crypto ‘pig butchering’ scams

The United States Department of Justice has filed an enforcement action as it moves to seize more than $225 million in cryptocurrency tied to massive pig butchering scams.

On June 18, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said it had filed a civil complaint in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, seeking the forfeiture of approximately $225.3 million in crypto linked to large-scale cryptocurrency confidence fraud schemes.

Tether helped freeze $225 million 

Most of the seized funds, according to the DOJ, were in the Tether (USDT).

Tether, the issuer of the U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin, acknowledged its collaboration with authorities as it helped to seize the assets.  An investigation by the U.S. Secret Service and the Federal Bureau of Investigation had deemed the millions of dollars in USDT to have been from proceeds of crypto scams.

The DOJ said the funds were tied to an extensive pig butchering scheme that targeted victims around the world. The wallet addresses holding the seized assets were part of what officials described as “a sophisticated blockchain-based money laundering network.”

Blockchain tools unearth extensive scheme

The perpetrators of the crypto investment fraud used a complex web of transactions in an attempt to obfuscate the flow of illicit funds.

However, authorities leveraged blockchain analytics tools to trace the transactions and link them to the fraudulent operation. According to the DOJ, the scammers defrauded more than 400 victims globally.

A report from the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center previously noted that crypto-related investment fraud schemes saw unsuspecting victims lose over $5.8 billion in 2024.

A more recent FBI report from April 2025 put total crypto scam-related losses at over $9 billion for 2024—with pig butchering schemes accounting for more than half of that figure.

In May 2025, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned Myanmar warlord and his militia over a range of crimes, including money laundering, human trafficking, and crypto fraud connected to pig butchering operations.