US, UAE and China Lead Crackdown; 276 Arrested, Nine Centers Shut

An international law enforcement operation led by authorities in the United States, the United Arab Emirates and China resulted in 276 arrests and the shutdown of at least nine crypto scam centers tied to fake investment platforms, officials said.

The U.S. Department of Justice said the operation involved Dubai police, the FBI, China’s Ministry of Public Security and the Royal Thai Police. Dubai authorities detained 275 people and Thai police arrested one person. Six suspects have been charged in connection with the centers; federal prosecutors in San Diego charged four defendants and two alleged co-conspirators who remain at large with fraud and money laundering. Each count carries a potential sentence of up to 20 years in prison and substantial fines.

Prosecutors allege the six charged individuals worked for three companies that ran the scam centers and promoted fraudulent crypto investment sites that convinced victims to deposit funds. FBI investigators reported identifying millions of dollars in losses tied to the network. Andrew Tysen Duva, U.S. Assistant Attorney General, described the arrests as reflecting an international consensus that scam centers are unwelcome and must be rooted out, adding that fraud crosses borders and enforcement must do the same.

Mark Remily, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s San Diego Field Office, characterized the indictment as part of a sustained effort to pursue overseas operations that defraud Americans and said the bureau is focused on identifying, disrupting and dismantling global scam centers regardless of where they operate.

A related operation in Europe led to arrests in Albania. Austrian and Albanian police, with support from Europol and Eurojust, detained 10 people in connection with three scam centers near Tirana. Europol estimated losses from that scheme at more than 50 million euros and said victims worldwide were lured by online investment sites advertised on social media and then pressured by fake brokers to invest more money.

Europol described the network as structured and staffed, with as many as 450 employees covering customer acquisition, service, management, finance, IT, human resources and back-office tasks. Law enforcement agencies have linked similar operations to long-running fraud models that use online dating, social media and fake investment pages to gain trust before asking victims to transfer funds.

Investigations in the U.S., the Middle East and Europe remain active as authorities pursue additional suspects, seek to recover assets and coordinate extraditions and financial tracing.