WASHINGTON—Federal prosecutors and law-enforcement leaders are launching an aggressive new campaign to counter a surge in cryptocurrency investment scams that has drained billions from U.S. consumers and increasingly entangled financial institutions.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia this week announced the formation of the nation’s first Scam Center Strike Force, a multi-agency effort targeting transnational crime syndicates—many based in Southeast Asia—that specialize in “pig-butchering” crypto schemes.

U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro said the scams represent a “generational wealth transfer from Main Street America into the pockets of Chinese organized crime,” noting that her office has unique authority to charge foreign defendants and seize property abroad. Federal officials described an ecosystem of fraud in which victims are groomed through social-media or text-message contacts, persuaded to invest in legitimate digital assets, and then tricked into moving their funds into fake U.S.-hosted platforms before the cryptocurrency is rapidly laundered overseas. Recent reporting estimates Americans are losing nearly $10 billion a year to these schemes.

Authorities said many of the operations are run out of heavily guarded scam compounds in Southeast Asia, often staffed by workers who are themselves victims of human trafficking. The Secret Service reported responding to roughly 3,000 U.S. victims of crypto-investment scams in fiscal 2025 alone, while the FBI warned that the long-term financial impact on families is “devastating.”

For financial institutions, the new Strike Force signals heightened federal scrutiny of crypto-related flows, platform hosting, and customer-onboarding risks—especially as scammers increasingly exploit U.S. infrastructure, corporate service providers, and payment rails. Pirro urged U.S. companies to join the effort through public-private partnerships aimed at hardening systems and blocking the use of domestic technology to facilitate fraud.

The initiative brings together the U.S. Attorney’s Office, DOJ’s Criminal Division, the FBI, and the Secret Service, with additional coordination from the State Department, Treasury’s OFAC, and the Commerce Department. Officials said the goal is to use every available government tool—from criminal prosecutions to sanctions authorities—to disrupt the networks, seize assets, and prevent further losses.