US-UK pact targets Southeast Asia crypto scam compounds
US and UK authorities signed an MOU for parallel investigations of scam compounds using crypto rails and trafficked labor. DOJ cites $10 billion in annual US losses.
US and UK prosecutors have put a dedicated cooperation architecture around a specific crime model. That model is the industrial scam compound in Southeast Asia: a facility that runs cryptocurrency and fake-investment schemes with trafficked workers.
The US Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, the Crown Prosecution Service of England and Wales, and the UK National Crime Agency announced a memorandum of understanding — a written cooperation pact that is not itself a treaty — between the Scam Center Strike Force and its British counterparts.
Officials described the agreement as the first international framework built to disrupt those compounds. The Department of Justice cites about $10 billion in annual losses to American victims from cryptocurrency fraud, cyber-enabled investment fraud, and related schemes.
What the memorandum commits
The pact authorizes parallel investigations — separate US and UK cases against the same targets at the same time.
The agencies will exchange intelligence on organized crime groups. They will coordinate on which country should prosecute which case. Officials said they will prioritize investigations they judge will have the greatest effect on the threat.
That is a standing bilateral workflow, not a one-off request for evidence.
Who US officials named
US Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro said the partners will work to disable Chinese transnational organized crime networks — crime groups that operate across borders — running the compounds. She said those networks take funds from US victims while using human-trafficked labor to increase profit.
Pirro launched the Scam Center Strike Force in November 2025 after Chinese organized crime groups expanded scam-center operations, primarily across Southeast Asia. The force’s stated focus is cryptocurrency investment scams, cyber-enabled fraud, human trafficking, and money laundering.
Why the compound model is the target
The compounds are not ordinary phishing shops. They are facilities where coerced workers run crypto and investment fraud at industrial scale.
Victim money is induced through fake investment pitches, then moved on crypto rails and through laundering networks. A case that stops at a US victim or a US exchange often never reaches the compound operators.
A UK partner adds a second intelligence service and a second prosecution venue against the same operators. The human stake is both stolen savings and the trafficked labor inside the compounds.
What remains unknown
No public details have been released on case volume, staffing, or timelines under the new memorandum. Officials have not confirmed which countries or which compounds are already targets of work under the pact.
The $10 billion figure is the Department of Justice’s annual US victim-loss estimate for the schemes as a group. It is not a count of recoveries, indictments, or cases filed under this agreement.