DOJ and Treasury Dismantle Xinbi Guarantee Scam Marketplace and Restrain $52 Million in Crypto

The U.S. Department of Justice's Scam Center Strike Force announced on September 9, 2026 that it had restrained approximately $52 million in cryptocurrency in a single day as part of an enforcement action against Xinbi Guarantee, a Chinese-language illicit marketplace that operated through Telegram. The U.S. Secret Service release stated on September 9, 2026 that the action brought the Strike Force's total restrained funds to approximately $938 million. Authorities said Xinbi Guarantee connected scam operators with vendors who advertised custom scam investment websites, money laundering services and the recruitment of trafficking victims for scam compounds in Southeast Asia.

The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia authorized the seizure of the Telegram channels hosting Xinbi Guarantee on September 7, 2026, according to the Justice Department. In addition to the channel seizures, investigators seized two cryptocurrency wallets that Xinbi used to collect vendor payments, which together held about $12 million. Law enforcement also sought the restraint of 47 additional wallets believed to be tied to laundering on Xinbi's network. The combined actions produced the more than $52 million figure that the DOJ and Tether later highlighted.

The public announcement on September 9, 2026 was made by U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro alongside U.S. Attorney for Alaska Michael J. Heyman, FBI Criminal Division Deputy Assistant Director Matthew Floyd, Special Agent in Charge Tara McLeese of the Secret Service Washington Field Office and Lisa Palluconi, Deputy Director of Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control. The same day, Treasury's OFAC sanctioned Xinbi Guarantee as a significant transnational criminal organization and designated two entities that support its core operations.

Tether added its own statement on September 11, 2026, saying the DOJ had credited its proactive assistance in the enforcement action. Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino used the moment to argue that stablecoin infrastructure can help law enforcement identify, disrupt and stop illicit finance. The company's involvement reflects a growing pattern in which crypto issuers and blockchain analytics firms work alongside US agencies in cases that mix digital assets, fraud and transnational crime.

Key Facts

The Department of Justice announced on September 9, 2026 that approximately $52 million of cryptocurrency involved in scam money laundering was restrained in one day, bringing the Scam Center Strike Force's total to roughly $938 million. The court authorization for the Telegram channel seizures came on September 7, 2026. The two seized wallets held about $12 million, and the government sought restraint of 47 more wallets.

Treasury's OFAC said on September 9, 2026 that Xinbi Guarantee is a Chinese-language illicit online marketplace used extensively by Chinese cybercriminals to support cyber scams, fraud and money laundering targeting Americans. Since its inception around 2022, OFAC said, the marketplace processed the equivalent of over $24 billion in digital assets and fiat currency, primarily in Southeast Asia. Treasury also said Xinbi had reportedly been used by North Korean hackers and by OFAC-designated entities including Jin Bei Group Co., Ltd. and entities of the Prince Group TCO.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said: 'Scam centers in Southeast Asia steal billions of dollars from American victims each year. Treasury will continue using its tools to disrupt the networks behind this egregious fraud and protect Americans.' OFAC also said Xinbi migrated its merchant and money-laundering networks around June 2025 to SafeW, an end-to-end encrypted messaging app from Singapore-based SafeW Technology Co., Ltd., and launched the XinbiPay (NewPay) crypto wallet developed by Cambodia-based Anwen Technology Co., Ltd. Both companies were designated for materially supporting Xinbi.

The action implements Executive Order 14390 of March 6, 2026 on combating cybercrime, fraud and predatory schemes. It builds on the 2025-2026 Prince Group designations and FinCEN's Huione Group rule, and it complements the United Kingdom's FCDO sanctions on Xinbi of March 26, 2026. All US property and interests of the designated entities are blocked.

The Strike Force also deployed a team to Madagascar that helped local authorities take down 13 Chinese-run scam compounds, process more than 3,200 electronic devices and interview nearly 400 arrestees, at least about 30 of them Chinese leaders repatriated to China. FBI IC3 data cited in the release shows crypto investment fraud losses rose 89% from $4.57 billion in 2023 to $8.65 billion in 2025, with cyber-enabled fraud accounting for almost 85% of all reported IC3 losses in 2025.

Analysis

The bigger picture here is that Xinbi Guarantee was not simply a dark web forum but a full service criminal economy, one that allegedly supplied fraud websites, laundering capacity and even trafficking victims to scam compounds. The $24 billion in transactions that OFAC attributes to Xinbi since around 2022 dwarfs the $52 million restrained in a single day. That gap shows how much of the illicit flow may remain outside the reach of any one seizure or sanction.

CoinDesk reported on September 9, 2026 that Treasury sanctioned Xinbi over transactions totalling as much as $24 billion, much of it associated with cryptocurrency. The same report said blockchain intelligence firm Elliptic helped the US Secret Service investigate Xinbi, which Elliptic described as the leading marketplace for online scammers. Much of the interaction was conducted over Telegram. That detail matters because the action targeted not only money but also communication infrastructure, with the court authorizing seizure of the Telegram channels.

Tether announced on September 11, 2026 that it had been acknowledged by the DOJ for its proactive assistance. The company said it has collaborated with more than 340 law enforcement agencies across 67 countries on over 2,800 cases, including more than 1,600 involving US law enforcement, contributing to the freezing of more than $5 billion in assets linked to illicit activity, including more than $2.5 billion with US authorities. Prior US cooperation includes about $225 million in USDT tied to a human-trafficking and romance-scam syndicate, nearly $61 million tied to an investment-fraud scheme and more than $344 million in USDT frozen with OFAC and US law enforcement.

What this really means is that the response to scam centers is becoming a multi-agency, multi-country operation in which sanctions, seizures, wallet tracing and foreign police raids reinforce one another. The Madagascar deployment, the OFAC designations of SafeW Technology and Anwen Technology, and the Tether cooperation all point in the same direction. The question is whether these tools can scale faster than the networks can migrate. OFAC said Xinbi moved its merchant and money-laundering activity around June 2025 to SafeW and launched the XinbiPay wallet built by Anwen Technology, which suggests the network was already adapting before the September 2026 action.

Why It Matters

The enforcement action matters because the alleged victims are largely American. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said scam centers in Southeast Asia steal billions of dollars from American victims each year, and Treasury pledged to keep using its tools to disrupt the networks behind the fraud. OFAC said Xinbi was used extensively by Chinese cybercriminals to support cyber scams, fraud and money laundering targeting Americans. The case therefore ties a Chinese-language marketplace and Southeast Asian scam compounds directly to US financial harm.

FBI IC3 data cited by the DOJ shows crypto investment fraud losses rose 89% from $4.57 billion in 2023 to $8.65 billion in 2025, and cyber-enabled fraud accounted for almost 85% of all reported IC3 losses in 2025. Against that backdrop, the roughly $938 million restrained by the Scam Center Strike Force to date is significant but still a fraction of the reported losses. The two seized wallets held about $12 million, while 47 additional wallets were targeted, indicating that the government is pursuing a network rather than a single actor.

The crypto industry's relationship with law enforcement also matters. Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said that criminal organizations should understand that using digital assets does not put them beyond the reach of the law, and he argued that stablecoin infrastructure can give law enforcement powerful tools to identify, disrupt and stop illicit financial activity. The DOJ release explicitly thanked Tether for its proactive assistance. That public credit could shape how other stablecoin issuers and exchanges respond to future requests from US agencies.

Next Up

The next phase will likely focus on the 47 additional wallets that authorities sought to restrain and on the designated entities SafeW Technology Co., Ltd. and Anwen Technology Co., Ltd., whose US property and interests are now blocked. OFAC said the action implements Executive Order 14390 of March 6, 2026 and builds on the 2025-2026 Prince Group designations and FinCEN's Huione Group rule. It also complements the United Kingdom's FCDO sanctions on Xinbi of March 26, 2026, suggesting that allied governments may add further measures.

The Scam Center Strike Force's total restrained funds now stand at approximately $938 million, and the Madagascar operation processed more than 3,200 electronic devices and interviewed nearly 400 arrestees. Those figures point to more investigations and possible charges ahead. Tether's statement on September 11, 2026 also signals that crypto issuers expect to remain part of the enforcement story, especially as FBI IC3 data continues to show rising crypto investment fraud losses. The coming months will test whether seizures, sanctions and industry cooperation can reduce the $24 billion marketplace that OFAC says Xinbi operated since around 2022.