The U.S. Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network has tied roughly $12.7 billion in reported financial activity to suspected investment scams involving digital assets, based on filings submitted by U.S. institutions over more than two years. FinCEN said many of the schemes are typically run by transnational organized crime groups based in Southeast Asia.

The figure comes from 33,904 Bank Secrecy Act reports filed between September 8, 2023 and December 31, 2025. FinCEN cautioned that the total should not be treated as confirmed victim losses, because it may include attempted transactions as well as duplicate reporting.

What FinCEN counted

According to FinCEN, the reported activity was drawn from filings submitted by banks and other financial institutions that identified possible links to digital-asset investment fraud. The agency said the number of reports rose by an average of 10.9% month over month during the period it reviewed, while the dollar amount flagged grew by about 18%.

Most of the reports came from money services businesses that were heavily tied to the digital-asset sector. Depository institutions, meanwhile, accounted for as much as 96% of all reports. FinCEN also said victims were located across all 50 U.S. states and some U.S. territories.

How the laundering system works

FinCEN’s alert described what it sees as an outsourced criminal ecosystem supporting these scams. Rather than handling every stage themselves, operators are said to rely on so-called guarantee marketplaces to buy specialized services ranging from account creation and phishing to the movement of stolen funds.

The agency said professional laundering services help move money through the financial system by setting up shell companies and mule accounts. It also pointed to stablecoin transfers sent to exchanges outside the United States as one of the routes used to move funds offshore.

Links to Southeast Asian crime groups

FinCEN said the scams are typically associated with transnational organized crime groups operating from Southeast Asia. That assessment aligns with broader findings from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, which has described the region’s criminal networks as part of a service-based underground economy where fraud, trafficking, and money laundering share the same infrastructure.

UNODC estimated scam-related losses across East Asia, Southeast Asia, Australia, and New Zealand at between $88.3 billion and $114.1 billion in 2025. It also said criminals involved in these activities had been identified from at least 80 countries, underscoring the cross-border nature of the networks.

Compliance pressure and next steps

The alert is likely to intensify pressure on crypto firms and other financial institutions to improve transaction monitoring, identify mule-account activity, and share information across jurisdictions. FinCEN is encouraging institutions to report scam indicators and watch for patterns that may point to laundering tied to digital-asset investment fraud.

FinCEN also highlighted its Rapid Response Program, which can be used to coordinate with foreign financial intelligence units to identify and try to recover fraudulent transfers. Even so, the source article noted that uneven oversight across borders leaves room for criminal groups to exploit regulatory and enforcement gaps, and the speed and effectiveness of international cooperation remain uncertain.

Source: Cryptopolitan