Ghana, UK seize $15.1M in crypto from cross-border scam

Ghana and the United Kingdom seized $15.1 million in cryptocurrency after tracing assets tied to a cross-border online investment scam in 2026. Authorities say part of the recovered funds will be returned to British victims.

The investigation began in 2026 when compliance staff at crypto exchange OKX flagged unusual activity and reported it to Europol. Europol forwarded the report to the UK National Crime Agency, which traced operational hubs and front offices to Ghana. Ghana’s Economic and Organized Crime Office imposed a 14-day administrative freeze on suspect accounts and later obtained a court order to extend the freeze while investigators worked with international partners.

Authorities describe the platform as an e-commerce “investment” service that invited users to run online shops, earn points from trading and build apparent balances. Investigators found the interface was a front for a Chinese-Malaysian organized crime syndicate that siphoned funds from victims and laundered proceeds through multiple digital tokens. Thousands of people in Ghana and the UK reported losses linked to the scheme.

Investigators from EOCO and the NCA used Chainalysis Reactor to follow the flow of stolen funds on-chain. The tool let teams in both countries view the same transaction data in real time and link wallets that appeared separate. Authorities consolidated illicit proceeds equivalent to 119.4 bitcoin, 93 ethereum and 2.85 million USDT, spread across nearly 20 different tokens. Much of the holdings had been converted into dogecoin to fragment and obscure the trail.

Law enforcement worked with private-sector partners to liquidate the assets. Complycrypto and custodian Zodia Custody handled the sales, which yielded $15.1 million. The proceeds were placed in an exhibit account managed by Ghanaian authorities while officials screen victim claims and prepare restitution arrangements. A portion of the recovered funds will be repatriated to the United Kingdom to compensate British victims.

Raymond Archer, executive director of EOCO, called for new partnerships and tools, stating: “The evolving nature of new threats such as fraud requires a new kind of partnership built on intelligence sharing and advanced tools.” Matthew Perfect, senior manager of fraud threat leadership at the UK’s National Economic Crime Centre, highlighted the shared on-chain visibility: “In this case, EOCO analysts could see exactly what we were seeing in the blockchain data. That meant we weren’t just sending each other reports — we were co‑investigating.”