A close-up view of the Telegram messaging app is seen on a smart phone on May 25, 2017 in London, England. (Photo by Carl Court/
WASHINGTON (TNND) —The Justice Department said Tuesday it seized Telegram channels and cryptocurrency wallets tied to Xinbi Guarantee, a Chinese-language marketplace with more than 650,000 users that allegedly sold services to online scam centers targeting Americans.
The DOJ’s Scam Center Strike Force and the Treasury Department took coordinated action against Xinbi, which authorities say operated on Telegram and functioned as an escrow service for vendors and scam-center operators. Officials said they restrained more than $52 million in cryptocurrency allegedly tied to scam money laundering in one day, bringing the Strike Force’s total restrained funds to about $938 million.
As alleged in a seizure warrant, Xinbi operated a Chinese-language marketplace on Telegram where vendors advertised custom scam investment websites, money-laundering services and recruitment of trafficking victims to work in Southeast Asian scam compounds, according to the DOJ.
Once a scammer bought a service, Xinbi allegedly held the payment until the vendor completed the work — a form of escrow meant to assure the scammers the promised service would be delivered. Investigators traced U.S. victims’ funds to vendors that advertised money-laundering services and posted cryptocurrency wallets for payment on Telegram, the department said.
If Chinese organized crime can buy a custom website and a money laundering service the way you order takeout, then every American with a retirement account is in the blast radius,” U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said. “My Strike Force will continue to dismantle Chinese organized crime, those who facilitate it, and protect Main Street America.
A federal judge in Washington authorized the seizure of the Telegram channels hosting the marketplace on Sept. 7, the DOJ said. The warrant also authorized the seizure of two cryptocurrency wallets Xinbi allegedly used to collect payments for vendors; together, they held about $12 million.
Law enforcement also sought to restrain 47 additional cryptocurrency wallets allegedly linked to money laundering through Xinbi’s network and vendors who worked for scammers. The coordinated actions restrained more than $52 million in cryptocurrency, the DOJ said, and the department credited stablecoin issuer Tether for its assistance in the investigation.
The Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) separately sanctioned Xinbi as a significant transnational criminal organization and identified numerous cryptocurrency wallets associated with it. Officials also sanctioned Singapore-based SafeW Technology Co. and Cambodia-based Anwen Technology Co., saying they materially supported Xinbi’s operations.
The OFAC said Xinbi had processed more than $24 billion in digital assets and traditional currency since launching around 2022. It said Xinbi began moving portions of its merchant and money-laundering network to SafeW, an encrypted messaging app, around June 2025 as law-enforcement scrutiny increased. Xinbi also launched XinbiPay, or NewPay, a cryptocurrency wallet and payment application.
The FBI received about 453,000 cyber-enabled fraud complaints in 2025, with reported losses exceeding $17.7 billion, according to the bureau. Investment fraud accounted for nearly half of scam-related losses, and Americans reported more than $11 billion in losses involving cryptocurrency.
Pirro also announced that the Strike Force is expanding its focus to scam compounds worldwide. A team spent two weeks in Madagascar helping local authorities take down 13 scam centers allegedly run by Chinese organized-crime syndicates.
Room of scam center evidence seized by the Madagascar authorities, which the Strike Force team assisted in processing (DOJ)
The team helped process more than 3,200 electronic devices, and Strike Force investigators opened their own cases after interviewing nearly 400 people arrested in the operation, including about 30 alleged Chinese leaders of the compounds who were repatriated to China by the Chinese government
FBI officials urged people who suspect they have been scammed to act quickly, saying speed can improve the chances of tracing or freezing transfers. Victims should stop sending money, notify their bank and file a report at ic3.gov.
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