Southeast Asia scam gangs stealing billions face US crackdown: Treasury

Washington is escalating the battle against Southeast Asia's scam centres, by going after the people, money, technology and political protection that allow them to thrive.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned that Washington will use its financial power to disrupt criminal networks that have stolen billions of dollars from Americans.

“Scam centres in Southeast Asia steal billions of dollars from American victims each year,” Bessent said Wednesday as the US Treasury sanctioned Xinbi Guarantee, a Chinese-language financial platform that Washington says has become a major piece of the infrastructure supporting cyber scams, money laundering and other criminal activity.

The Treasury action was coordinated with the Justice Department's Scam Centre Strike Force, which simultaneously moved against Xinbi's infrastructure and digital-asset wallets.

The latest crackdown shows that Washington is increasingly treating Southeast Asia's scam compounds not simply as a consumer-fraud problem but as a transnational organised-crime, human-trafficking and financial-security threat.

The Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network said last week that it had identified nearly $13 billion in transactions linked to suspected digital-asset investment scams operated by overseas scam centres.

The scams include so-called “pig-butchering” schemes, in which criminals build relationships with victims through romance, friendship or fake investment opportunities before persuading them to transfer money into fraudulent cryptocurrency or investment platforms.

Many of the networks operate from Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos, although the criminal ecosystem extends well beyond those countries.

FinCEN said the operations frequently rely on transnational criminal organizations, cryptocurrency and networks of intermediaries to move and conceal stolen money.

The scale is enormous. US authorities estimate Americans lost at least $10 billion to Southeast Asia-based scams in 2024, with losses believed to have increased since then.

Treasury goes after the financial infrastructure

The latest target, Xinbi Guarantee, is particularly significant because Washington alleges it provided an online marketplace and financial services that enabled scam operators to move money and obtain services needed to run their operations.

Treasury also designated two entities that allegedly supported Xinbi through digital-currency and financial services.

The department said Xinbi has been used extensively by Chinese cybercriminals and that its network has been associated with fraud, money laundering and other illicit activity targeting Americans.

The action was accompanied by Justice Department seizures of infrastructure and digital assets.

Treasury's message to banks, cryptocurrency companies and other financial institutions is increasingly clear: doing business with these networks can bring you inside the reach of the U.S. financial system.

That approach mirrors Washington's broader sanctions strategy, in which access to the dollar and U.S.-linked financial infrastructure becomes a weapon against criminal organizations operating overseas.

The latest action is only one part of a much broader US campaign.

The Scam Centre Strike Force, established to coordinate federal investigations, includes the FBI, Secret Service, Justice Department prosecutors and other agencies. 

It is pursuing criminal leaders, money launderers, recruitment networks and the US-based digital infrastructure used to target victims.

In April, the strike force announced charges against two Chinese nationals accused of running a scam compound in Myanmar and attempting to establish another in Cambodia.

Authorities also seized a Telegram channel with more than 6,000 followers that investigators said was used to recruit people with false promises of jobs in Cambodia. Some recruits were allegedly trafficked and forced to conduct scams against Americans.

The Justice Department said it had also seized 503 fraudulent websites and restrained more than $700 million in cryptocurrency allegedly connected to scam-centre money laundering.

The US strategy increasingly combines sanctions, criminal prosecutions, asset seizures and diplomatic pressure.

Washington has focused particular attention on Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos, where large scam compounds have operated from casinos, hotels, office complexes and special economic zones.

The State Department is part of the broader US effort, while American law-enforcement agencies are working with regional governments, including Thailand.

The pressure is not occurring in isolation.

The European Union in July imposed sanctions on seven individuals and three entities linked to scam centres in Southeast Asia, including Cambodia's Prince Holding Group and its chairman Chen Zhi. 

The EU accused the network of operating compounds where trafficked workers were allegedly held and forced to conduct cryptocurrency scams.

The international pressure is creating a difficult challenge for criminal networks: when one government closes a compound, the operators can move across borders.

That is already happening.

Recent reporting indicates that scam networks pushed out of Cambodian compounds have been attempting to establish or expand operations elsewhere, including Laos, Myanmar and Malaysia.

This is one of the biggest challenges facing Washington.

A raid on a compound may rescue trafficking victims and disrupt one criminal organisation, but the underlying business can survive if its financial networks, cryptocurrency channels, recruiters and political protection remain intact.

Treasury's strategy is increasingly aimed at the money rather than merely the buildings.

Bessent’s remarks also fit a much broader transformation in how the Trump administration is using Treasury. 

Just one day earlier, Bessent openly defended using the financial power of the United States as a foreign-policy tool, saying Washington could use its balance sheet and financial leverage to advance US interests abroad.

The scam-centre campaign is a particularly direct application of that philosophy.

Instead of sending American forces into Southeast Asia, Washington can target:

• banks;

• cryptocurrency exchanges;

• payment platforms;

• shell companies;

• casino networks;

• digital wallets;

• websites and online infrastructure;

• politically connected business figures.

The objective is to make the criminal economy increasingly difficult and expensive to operate.

The human-trafficking dimension

The scam-centre crisis is also much bigger than online fraud. Many people working inside these compounds are themselves victims of trafficking.

Criminal groups have recruited people with promises of legitimate jobs abroad, only to confiscate their passports, restrict their movement and force them to conduct scams under threats of violence.

Treasury has previously described cases involving debt bondage, violence and forced criminality.

That creates a difficult law-enforcement problem: the person sending the scam message may be both a perpetrator and a trafficking victim.

The US campaign therefore combines financial sanctions with criminal investigations and efforts to identify and rescue trafficked workers.

What happens next?

The key test for Washington will be whether it can disrupt the entire ecosystem, rather than simply close individual compounds.

That means persuading Southeast Asian governments to:

1. permanently shut down scam compounds;

2. prosecute politically connected operators;

3. seize criminal assets;

4. strengthen controls over casinos and special economic zones;

5. cooperate on trafficking investigations;

6. share financial intelligence;

7. prevent criminal groups from simply relocating across borders.

For Southeast Asian governments, the stakes are also rising. The US has demonstrated that it is prepared to use sanctions and access to the global financial system against companies and individuals accused of facilitating scams.