CoinDesk
Federal prosecutors filed five civil forfeiture complaints in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia seeking more than $25 million in cryptocurrency tied to international romance and investment scams that targeted victims in the U.S. and Canada. The complaints stem from separate Secret Service investigations in which agents traced funds through hundreds of wallet addresses and linked the frozen crypto to more than 270 suspected investment-scam transactions and more than 200 romance-scam victims.
The two largest cases target roughly $12.1 million tied to online romance schemes and $10.4 million tied to fraudulent investment platforms. Three additional complaints seek about $2.39 million, $1.23 million and $285,000. In one complaint, investigators say scammers cut off contact after a victim tried to withdraw funds from what appeared to be a crypto investment account. In another, fraudsters contacted a prior fraud victim and claimed they could recover their losses for a fee, a recovery-room pattern.
Why it matters
The cases are part of the Scam Center Strike Force, which launched in November 2025 and which the U.S. Attorney's Office says has now recovered more than $800 million. Forfeiture is a civil tool, not a criminal conviction, allowing the government to seize assets it alleges are proceeds of crime without first winning a trial. The combined $25M-plus figure is small relative to that $800M headline, but the suit-by-suit trajectory matters because each complaint adds to a public ledger of wallet addresses investigators are willing to trace on-chain, narrowing the safe-haven surface for personal-fraud operators who route victim funds through crypto.
Market impact
There is no direct token-price read here; the complaints do not name a specific coin or project. The relevant market signal is procedural: civil forfeiture complaints drag on-chain evidence into the public record, which constrains the liquidity of funds sitting in traced wallets and tends to push more recovery-room and pig-butchering operators toward faster off-ramps and chain-hopping.
Frequently asked questions
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What is the Scam Center Strike Force and when did it launch?
It is a federal task force focused on scams that target U.S. victims, launched in November 2025. The U.S. Attorney's Office says it has now recovered more than $800 million in total.
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How much crypto is the government trying to seize in these filings?
Federal prosecutors filed five civil forfeiture complaints seeking more than $25 million in cryptocurrency. The two largest cases target $12.1 million (romance schemes) and $10.4 million (fraudulent investment platforms).
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How did investigators trace the funds?
Secret Service agents traced proceeds through hundreds of wallet addresses and linked the frozen crypto to more than 270 suspected investment-scam transactions and more than 200 romance-scam victims across the U.S. and Canada.
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What is a recovery-room scam and how did it appear in the complaints?
A recovery-room scam targets people who already lost money to fraud, promising to recover their losses for an upfront fee. In one of the complaints, scammers contacted a prior fraud victim and offered to recover stolen funds for a fee.
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Why does civil forfeiture matter for crypto markets?
Civil forfeiture lets the government seize assets without a criminal conviction, and each complaint adds traced wallet addresses to the public record. That narrows the liquidity available to fraud operators and pushes them toward faster off-ramps.
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