US Authorities Freeze $52.8 Million Linked to Xinbi Guarantee Scam Network
The US Department of Justice has taken coordinated action against Xinbi Guarantee, an online marketplace operating through Telegram that provided services to scam operators. Authorities seized Telegram channels, confiscated two cryptocurrency wallets, and deployed a dedicated Scam Center Strike Force to Madagascar to help dismantle 13 scam compounds linked to Chinese organised crime groups. Roughly $52 million in cryptocurrency tied to scam money laundering was restrained in a single day, bringing the Strike Force's total recovered funds to around $938 million.
Alongside the DoJ action, the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned Chinese-language media outlets accused of facilitating cyber scams, fraud, and money laundering targeting Americans. Xinbi Guarantee rose to prominence after two similar marketplaces, HuiOne Guarantee and Tudou Guarantee, were shut down last year. Blockchain analytics firm Elliptic, which assisted the US Secret Service in identifying and freezing the wallets, described Xinbi as the second largest illicit marketplace of its kind, with an estimated $30 billion in transactions since it began operating around 2022.
Xinbi functioned as a middleman connecting vendors with scam centre operators running so-called 'pig butchering' romance investment scams, offering services such as building fake investment websites, laundering scam proceeds, and recruiting trafficking victims to staff scam compounds across Southeast Asia.