French Citizen Gets Eight Years in U.S. Prison for $470 Million Crypto Laundering Scheme

Cryptocurrency investment and romance scams typically use fake trading platforms, fabricated relationships or bogus recovery services to win victims’ trust, then route proceeds through layers of digital wallets. The five cases span victims in the United States and Canada and alleged laundering networks centered in Southeast Asia. They underscore both the cross-border reach of crypto-enabled fraud and authorities’ ability to trace blockchain transactions and freeze assets through civil forfeiture proceedings.

On July 21, 2026, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia and the U.S. Secret Service’s Washington Field Office filed five civil forfeiture complaints seeking more than $25 million in seized cryptocurrency. The two largest claims cover about $12.09 million linked to romance scams affecting more than 200 victims and $10.40 million traced to more than 270 suspected victim transactions. Three other complaints seek about $2.39 million, $1.23 million and $285,000. The investigations remain open, and the recoveries lifted the Scam Center Strike Force’s total above $800 million.

BiXiang Technology, once Taiwan's largest physical cryptocurrency dealer, exploited the decentralized and rapid nature of virtual-asset transactions to launder funds in collusion with fraud rings. The case involved NT$2.3 billion in laundered funds, severely damaging Taiwan's financial order and confidence in its virtual-asset market. It also prompted widespread concern over regulatory gaps affecting brick-and-mortar cryptocurrency dealers.

The Shilin District Court in Taiwan handed down its first-instance ruling in the case on July 17, 2026. Mastermind Shih Chi-jen was sentenced to 22 years in prison for offenses including violations of the Organized Crime Prevention Act. The court also ordered the confiscation of more than NT$43.71 million in criminal proceeds, along with seized cryptocurrency and cash, making it one of Taiwan's heaviest sentences in a cryptocurrency money-laundering case in recent years.

As cross-border online fraud grows more sophisticated, cryptocurrencies have become a new conduit for illicit money laundering because of their high degree of anonymity. Interpol has stepped up enforcement to prevent criminal groups from using decentralized finance to legitimize illicit proceeds. The scale and cross-border reach of such networks have made stemming virtual-asset flows a major challenge for global financial-security and law-enforcement authorities.

Interpol said in July 2026 that Operation First Light 2026 had dismantled a money-laundering network linked to romance scams. Thai police arrested two suspects whose cryptocurrency wallets received more than $122 million over 10 months. The coordinated global operation resulted in 5,811 arrests and the seizure of $293 million in illicit assets.