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FIRST ON FOX — The FBI says it has seized a record-setting $8 billion in cryptocurrency and arrested hundreds of suspects as part of an intercontinental crackdown on “scam compounds” and organized crime, including one group known as the “Democratic Karen Benevolent Army.”
They have been blamed for a global wave of theft from Americans, including as much as $3 million from a single U.S. citizen who fell victim to an online scam.
The FBI confiscated more than 127,000 bitcoin during the arrest of one leader, Chen Zhi, the CEO of a Cambodian enterprise called the Prince Holding Group. That’s worth more than $8 billion — possibly more than $15 billion a the time of seizure — and officials are calling it the largest forfeiture in the history of the U.S. government’s history.
The Democratic Karen Benevolent Army is an armed militia named after a region in Myanmar with alleged ties to the Chinese mob and currently facing sanctions from the U.S. Treasury for prior large scale scamming operations. It has been designated a transnational criminal organization by the government.
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A large number of seized devices from an FBI anti-scam operation in Thailand. (FBI)
More compounds in Asia, Africa and the Middle East have allegedly been tied to Chinese organized crime and were specifically targeting Americans, and operations to dismantle additional centers remain underway globally, an FBI official told Fox News Digital Thursday.
“Scam compounds are not just call centers. They are organized criminal enterprises built to steal from Americans, launder money, and exploit people at scale,” FBI Director Kash Patel said in a statement to Fox News Digital.
“The FBI has been leading the charge, from taking down Prince Group in Cambodia to Operation Sand Dollar in Dubai. We helped free nearly 2,000 trafficked workers, shut down more than $8 billion in scam center fraud, and arrested nearly 300 people,” Patel said. “If you target Americans, we will find you, disrupt your network, and bring every available tool of the federal government down on you.”
In Thailand, photos show the FBI seized thousands of smartphones, as well as office equipment from an operation there.
In Dubai, local police and the FBI arrested 275 people, six of whom will be extradited to the United States to face federal charges, the FBI said.
Each of the nine compounds raided there were allegedly taking in $6 million in fraud proceeds a year.
The Prince Group is accused of running similar guarded compounds around the world, authorities said.
FBI agents sit in front of devices seized in anti-scam operations. (FBI)
Zhi faces federal charges of wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy.
An FBI official told Fox News Digital that the bureau has been prioritizing crackdown on these groups for the past 12 months.
The official said the $3 million case involved one person who was the victim of a romance scheme, noting that other fraud schemes have been linked to several suicides, historically including extortion cases that were mostly targeting teenagers.
Victims of scam centers who were tricked or trafficked into working in Myanmar, stuck in limbo at a compound inside the KK Park, a fraud factory, and a human trafficking hub on the border with Thailand-Myanmar after a multinational crackdown on the compounds run by criminal gangs, operated by the Karen Border Guard Force (BGF) in Myawaddy, Myanmar, Feb. 26, 2025. (REUTERS/Stringer)
Some of the groups allegedly relied on human trafficking victims for labor, according to the bureau. Scammers often entice individuals with promises of good income and work visas to lure them into the scam operations, then force them to conduct scams by threat of beatings or other torture methods.
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The FBI partnered with Starlink, providing the Elon Musk-owned satellite company with geolocation data to help identify scammers using Starlink terminals to engage in fraud. Through the partnership, Starlink suspended more than 7,000 terminals in Myanmar, according to the bureau.
The operation sprung from a series of complaints the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) received in 2025. Over the course of the year, IC3 received nearly 72,000 complaints detailing losses of more than $7.5 billion related to cryptocurrency investment fraud. The FBI estimates those figures wildly underrepresent actual losses.
Multinational victims of scam centers, who were tricked or trafficked into working in Myanmar, stand on a vessel floating towards the Thai side of border via Moei River in Phop Phra District, Tak province, Thailand, on Feb. 12, 2025. (REUTERS/Krit Phromsakla Na Sakolnakorn)
An estimate from the United States Institute of Peace suggests that criminal syndicates steal approximately $64 billion every year.
The overarching Operation Blackout included at least four separate operations including the aforementioned investigation into the Prince Holding Group, called Operation Zephyr Exodus. Other operations included Operation Sand Dollar, an investigation targeting scam compounds operated by organized crime elements throughout Asia that preyed on American citizens in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Another operation was Operation Haochen, an investigation into the Tai Chang scam compound in Kyaukhat, Myanmar, an area controlled by the DKBA. The compound was allegedly connected to Chinese criminal actors. The FBI seized $30 million tied to Tai Chang and other scam compounds.
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The Shunda Compound Takedown involved a joint task force including the FBI and Thai partners. The investigation led to the arrest of two subjects in Thailand and the seizure of a Telegram channel used to recruit forced labor into a Cambodian law enforcement impersonation scam.
The FBI also enacted a proactive measure, Operation Level Up, an initiative that identifies victims of cryptocurrency investment fraud and notifies them of scams. Through the operation, the FBI has already notified 8,935 victims, 77 percent of whom were unaware they were being scammed. The notifications have prevented $562 million in losses.