Justice Department Seizes Xinbi Guarantee Scam Marketplace, Restrains $52 Million in Cryptocurrency
The Justice Department’s Scam Center Strike Force, in coordination with the Treasury Department, seized the Chinese-language scam marketplace Xinbi Guarantee and restrained approximately $52 million in cryptocurrency in a single day, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro announced this week. The operation brings the total assets the Strike Force has restrained since its inception to roughly $938 million.
A separate Strike Force team simultaneously assisted authorities in Madagascar in dismantling 13 Chinese-run scam compounds, expanding the crackdown launched last November well beyond its original Southeast Asian footprint.
Inside the Xinbi Guarantee Takedown
Xinbi operated almost exclusively on Telegram in Chinese, functioning as a marketplace where vendors advertised services to scam center operators. These services included building custom fraud investment websites, laundering money stolen through wire fraud, and recruiting trafficking victims to staff scam compounds.
The platform held payments in escrow until vendors completed their jobs. Prosecutors say this mechanism allowed them to trace specific victim funds to vendors who posted wallet addresses on the channel. A federal court in Washington authorized the seizure of those Telegram channels on September 7, and prosecutors unsealed the warrant Wednesday.
Investigators seized two crypto wallets Xinbi used to collect vendor payments, valued at roughly $12 million, and sought restraint of 47 additional wallets tied to the network. The total assets taken from the platform and its vendors exceeds $52 million.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) separately designated Xinbi a transnational criminal organization the same day, along with two other entities accused of supporting it, freezing any property they hold in the United States.
Pirro emphasized the broad risk to ordinary Americans:
“Every American with a retirement account is in the blast radius,” she stated. “My Strike Force will continue to dismantle Chinese organized crime, those who facilitate it, and protect Main Street America.”
Madagascar Deployment Signals Global Expansion
Alongside the Xinbi action, U.S. Attorney Michael Heyman of Alaska said the Strike Force’s two-week deployment to Madagascar, which helped process more than 3,200 devices and interview about 400 arrested individuals, reflects the direction of the enforcement effort.
“Transnational criminal organizations don’t care about borders, and the Department of Justice won’t either,” he said.
Xinbi’s Operations Predate Current Crackdown
In March, the British government sanctioned Xinbi. Blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis estimated the platform had processed nearly $20 billion in cryptocurrency between 2021 and 2025, facilitating sales ranging from stolen personal data to satellite equipment used to reach fraud victims.
That earlier sanction barely slowed the operation. The criminal group simply opened new Telegram channels and continued its activities. The Strike Force itself dates to November 2025, when Pirro established it to target Chinese organized crime running scam centers.
Federal data cited in Wednesday’s announcement placed reported crypto investment fraud losses at $8.65 billion in 2025, up 89% from $4.57 billion in 2023. The FBI notes these figures are “significantly under-represented,” as most fraud victims do not report the crimes.