justice

U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche posted on the X platform that this week cybercriminals launched password recovery attacks against hundreds of thousands of X users. The X platform successfully thwarted this attack to prevent user accounts from being hijacked, and the Department of Justice is working closely with X to track down the attackers.

The U.S. Department of Justice announced that it has seized over $560,000 in cryptocurrency originally intended to fund Hamas and has taken control of the domain names and servers used by the organization for fundraising and recruiting supporters. The Department of Justice released five affidavits along with the announcement on Wednesday, three of which were signed on March 25, June 25, and October 10, 2025, regarding the seizure order for the aforementioned $560,000 in cryptocurrency.According to court documents, investigators identified and tracked rotating cryptocurrency addresses promoted through encrypted group chats and fundraising websites with the help of human intelligence sources. The first actions recovered approximately $201,400 from wallets and accounts, which have transferred over $1.5 million since October 2024, with the related addresses allegedly controlled by Hamas's military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades.Additionally, the FBI seized the domain name and servers used to operate the organization's main website Alqassam.ps, allowing them to intercept subsequent cryptocurrency donations. The Department of Justice stated that this operation enabled investigators to obtain information on thousands of individuals who contacted Hamas-related platforms, attempting to donate via cryptocurrency or traditional payment methods.

According to Decrypt, CrowdStrike and the U.S. Department of Justice announced on Tuesday that they have dismantled the Sality peer-to-peer botnet, which has been active since 2003.This botnet primarily hijacked cryptocurrency payments through the EggJagger malware over the past eight years, which monitored the cryptocurrency wallet addresses in victims' clipboards and replaced them with the operator's own address, causing victims to send funds to strangers.CrowdStrike estimates that the operator has stolen at least 12.1 million rubles (approximately $150,000) solely through the EggJagger payload. Most of the stolen cryptocurrency has not been spent, and CrowdStrike assesses that these unspent assets were worth about 147 million rubles (nominally around $1.35 million) at their peak in January 2025. The reason Sality has survived to this day is that it does not have a central server that can be seized; infected machines communicate directly with each other.This multinational operation involved the United States, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Romania. The U.S. Department of Justice, FBI, and Defense Criminal Investigative Service seized Sality-related domains within the United States, and police from multiple European countries also seized other domains.CrowdStrike isolated more than 15,000 infected machines to its controlled honeypot by exploiting its architectural vulnerabilities. The operator has been tracked as SALTY SPIDER, which launched a denial-of-service attack against the Russian cryptocurrency exchange AvanChange in September 2023.

Jing Tian responded on Weibo, stating: "I will never sell my love for money, now, in the past, or in the future, nor will I sell my soul. I still believe in love, I still have poor judgment, and I still lack wisdom. But I believe in the law, believe in kindness, and believe that justice and fairness will ultimately prevail. Time will prove everything."Previously, Sun Yuchen's attorney Zhang Qihuai released a statement of the case facts, indicating that Sun Yuchen has filed a civil lawsuit against Jing Tian and her parents as defendants, involving a subject matter of over 30 million yuan. The case has been legally filed, and the plaintiff has applied for property preservation.

According to The Block, a federal jury in the United States found San Francisco resident Japheth Dillman guilty of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. The U.S. Department of Justice stated that Dillman made false statements regarding the cryptocurrency trading fund Block Bits Capital, which he co-founded, defrauding over 20 investors of nearly $1 million.His sentencing hearing is scheduled for December 8.

According to Decrypt, the U.S. Department of Justice has filed charges against 17 hackers allegedly affiliated with Iran's Mabna Institute, accusing them of participating in years-long cyber attack activities, including the 2017 breach of U.S. cable network HBO, where they stole data and demanded approximately $6 million in ransom paid in Bitcoin. Prosecutors claim that the organization conducted hacking attacks on behalf of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and other Iranian government clients, targeting hundreds of universities, businesses, and government agencies worldwide, stealing at least 31.5 TB of academic data and intellectual property.The organization also targeted over 100,000 professor accounts, breaching about 8,000 accounts across 144 U.S. universities and 178 foreign universities. The U.S. State Department is offering a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to the whereabouts of five of the defendants. In recent months, the U.S. Treasury has imposed sanctions on several Iranian cryptocurrency exchanges and frozen over $131 million in cryptocurrency assets related to the Iranian central bank and the Revolutionary Guard.

According to Bloomberg, the U.S. Department of Justice is conducting an antitrust investigation into Silicon Valley's top venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), focusing on its partners serving on the boards of multiple AI companies that are in competition with each other—co-founder Ben Horowitz serves on the board of Databricks, and partner Martin Casado serves on the board of Fivetran, with both companies competing in the data processing field.Casado previously also served on the board of dbt labs (acquired by Fivetran in June). This investigation has been ongoing for nearly a year, starting with the antitrust review of Fivetran's acquisition of dbt labs. Although the acquisition has been unconditionally approved, the investigation into the board positions continues. Such investigations typically end with board members resigning. a16z has close ties to the Trump administration, with both founders donating millions to the Trump campaign in 2024 and successfully pushing for the weakening of safety barriers in AI policy. a16z manages assets totaling $90 billion and recently raised a $15 billion fund, with a portfolio that includes SpaceX, OpenAI, and Cursor, among others.

FlashRescue co-founder @DarcyAri posted on the X platform that on July 28, 2026, the funding project ODY targeting victims in China issued an additional 10 billion tokens and absconded with approximately 15 million USDT from the trading pool. Currently, it is known that there are over 10,000 victims, and the case has been accepted and is under investigation.Including subsequent transfers and transaction fees, ODY has aggregated at least 15,669,118 USDT. Further tracking revealed that the same main aggregation address previously received 5,383,428 USDT transferred from the KXG wallet, confirming that ODY and KXG share a common fund pool.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that Liu Zhou, the founder and principal operator of the cryptocurrency financial services company MyTrade, was recently fined $10,000 in federal court in Boston for participating in a cryptocurrency market manipulation scheme.Prosecutors stated that MyTrade provided so-called "Volume Support" services to cryptocurrency projects through its "MyTrade MM" platform, using bots to execute false trades (wash trading) across multiple cryptocurrency exchanges, artificially creating trading volume and market activity to mislead investors. According to the plea agreement, MyTrade MM has ceased providing "Volume Support" services and permanently shut down the related wash trading bots, while adding a statement on its website acknowledging that "Volume Support constitutes wash trading, which is illegal under U.S. law." The U.S. Department of Justice stated that the case was jointly pursued by the U.S. Attorney's Office and the Boston division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that Taj Tarsha, the founder of the NFT market project Few and Far, has been charged with securities fraud and wire fraud, accused of concealing the use of funds from investors and misappropriating financing for personal consumption.According to the indictment, Tarsha raised funds from investors starting in 2022 through a SAFT (Simple Agreement for Future Tokens), claiming that the funds would be used to develop a decentralized NFT trading market and the FAR token ecosystem.Prosecutors stated that Tarsha raised over $10 million from at least 67 investors by selling approximately 95 million FAR token rights. However, shortly after the fundraising, he allegedly used investor funds for personal purposes, including online gambling, purchasing high-risk crypto assets, paying for a Miami apartment loan, interior design expenses, and personal DJ activities.The indictment documents show that Tarsha also allegedly misappropriated nearly $1 million in company funds through two bonuses that were not disclosed to investors and co-founders, as well as through high salaries. After an audit revealed anomalies in the related funds, Tarsha was accused of providing false explanations to investors, claiming that the use of funds was in line with project development needs.

According to The Block, the new version of the cryptocurrency ethics clause signed by President Trump has been approved, explicitly prohibiting federal officials (including members of Congress, the President, and the Vice President) from issuing digital assets, with the Department of Justice serving as the primary enforcement agency rather than state attorneys general. This arrangement has sparked controversy among Democrats. Maryland Democratic Senator Angela Alsobrooks stated that "having the Department of Justice enforce the ethics clause is not a serious proposal," and she will not support the bill if the final text remains as such.This clause is the last obstacle to the passage of the Clarity Act, with the controversy focusing on Trump's own meme coin and his family company World Liberty Financial—last month's financial report revealed that Trump received millions of dollars in related income from WLF. The White House has not confirmed the specific wording of the clause but stated that it is working with lawmakers to push the bill through and will place the blame for any obstruction on the Democrats.

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia, in conjunction with the U.S. Secret Service Washington Field Office, announced that an investigation into multiple international cyber fraud cases has led to the seizure of over $25 million in cryptocurrency, with the funds suspected to be linked to cryptocurrency investment scams targeting residents of the United States and Canada. This operation is part of the U.S. "Scam Center Strike Force," initiated in 2025 by D.C. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro, which has so far recovered assets totaling over $800 million.U.S. prosecutors stated that on July 21, 2026, the D.C. Attorney's Office submitted five civil forfeiture complaints to the U.S. District Court, seeking to confiscate over $25 million in crypto assets recovered from various fraud investigations. Investigators indicated that these cases involve multiple money laundering networks, with victims spread across the globe. Criminal groups lure victims into investing through fake cryptocurrency investment platforms, online romance scams, and other methods, and conceal the source of funds through multi-layered wallet addresses and coin mixing operations.The seized funds are related to five major investigations: in one case, Canadian law enforcement provided the U.S. Secret Service with wallet addresses suspected of transferring illegal proceeds. Investigators froze the relevant addresses and tracked over 270 suspected victim transactions, involving approximately $10.4 million; the second case involves an online romance scam where over 200 victims were defrauded, with illegal funds transferred through hundreds of intermediary wallet addresses, mixing with other victims' funds, totaling about $12.08 million; the third case involves a victim in the Washington D.C. area who participated in a fake cryptocurrency investment project and lost contact with the scammers after a failed withdrawal, with related funds amounting to about $1.23 million; in the fourth case, a victim transferred millions of dollars in cryptocurrency to a fake investment account, and investigators traced part of the funds to six wallet addresses, freezing approximately $2.39 million; in the fifth case, scammers impersonated a "fund recovery" agency, tricking victims into paying fees, with the amount involved being about $285,000. The U.S. Secret Service stated that these cases are still under ongoing investigation, and law enforcement is tracking the suspects behind the fraud networks and will collaborate with international law enforcement agencies to hold them accountable.

According to a statement from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York, two Chinese citizens, Chen Zhuoying (also known as "Jolene," 27 years old, Brooklyn) and Zhang Haojie (also known as "Kevin," 38 years old, Queens), were formally charged on July 16 in federal court in Brooklyn with conspiracy to commit money laundering.According to the allegations, the two managed a money laundering network of over ten people in Queens and Brooklyn from 2020 to 2022, using approximately 45 shell companies and 140 business bank accounts to transfer at least $43 million in proceeds from "pig butchering" investment scams to accounts in China. The "pig butchering" scam contacts victims through social media or instant messaging software, gaining their trust with false high-return investment opportunities before absconding with their money. This case is being jointly investigated by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the FBI, IRS-CI, and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. If convicted, both defendants face a maximum of 20 years in prison.

According to Decrypt, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that Rossen Iossifov, the founder of the Bulgarian cryptocurrency exchange RG Coins, has been indicted for allegedly transferring approximately $290,000 in cryptocurrency assets that had been ordered to be forfeited by the court during his imprisonment.Prosecutors stated that in January 2024, while serving his sentence in federal prison, he conspired to transfer the assets involved through multiple cryptocurrency exchanges and mixing services to evade government seizure.Iossifov was previously sentenced to 111 months in prison in 2021 for participating in money laundering of nearly $5 million and assisting a Romanian cyber fraud gang in handling the proceeds, and he was ordered to pay restitution of over $2.6 million and forfeit related cryptocurrency assets. If the new charges are upheld, he could face an additional 25 years in prison.

The U.S. Department of Justice has warned internal staff that Binance may reduce its level of cooperation in cryptocurrency-related cases in the future.In response, Binance stated that the relevant reports are not true, and that the company's cooperation with law enforcement agencies has not changed and will not change.

According to Financefeeds, the U.S. Department of Justice has announced criminal charges against 19-year-old dual citizen Peter Stokes, who is accused of being a member of the cybercrime organization "Scattered Spider," and has been extradited from Finland to the United States.

According to The Block, the U.S. Department of Justice has seized a cloud computing account used by Huione Group, which is accused of laundering billions of dollars in cryptocurrency scam proceeds. Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva stated that the account constituted technical support, enabling the transfer and concealment of scam funds through Southeast Asian scam centers. This action is part of "Operation Choke Point," under which the U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network had previously identified Huione Group as a primary money laundering concern.The statement claims that Huione's subsidiaries are suspected of assisting criminals in transferring funds from investment scams, cyber theft, and other illegal blockchain activities, ultimately injecting them into the legitimate banking system, with a significant amount of theft reportedly linked to North Korea. Huione's "Huione Guarantee" had previously posted advertisements for stolen credit cards, identity information, malware profits, and human trafficking services on Telegram channels. Blockchain analytics firm Elliptic pointed out that Huione launched the stablecoin USDH under financial pressure last year and developed a proprietary product line that includes a decentralized exchange, wallets, and "Huione Chain" (Xone).

According to CryptoSlate, the U.S. Congress is pushing to rebuild the Department of Justice's cryptocurrency crime task force. Previously, the Department of Justice disbanded the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team in April 2025 and stopped its "law enforcement as regulation" strategy targeting the cryptocurrency industry. The new bill was proposed by Representatives Lance Gooden and Josh Gottheimer, aiming to establish a federal cryptocurrency theft task force within the Department of Justice, responsible for coordinating investigations and prosecutions of cases involving cryptocurrency theft, hacking, fraud, and more.The task force's responsibilities include developing best practices for evidence collection, digital evidence analysis, asset tracking, and victim outreach, providing technical assistance and training to state and local law enforcement agencies, and coordinating international cross-border case cooperation. The bill explicitly excludes the cryptocurrency market, financial institutions, and financial products from the task force's regulatory scope, without changing the existing regulatory framework and criminal law. An FBI report indicates that in 2025, there were 181,565 complaints involving cryptocurrency, with reported losses exceeding $11 billion. The bill has not yet clarified details regarding funding, staffing, and victim response mechanisms.

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania announced that Ruslan Igorevich Tkachuk and Alexander Vladimirovich Ledenev were arrested for allegedly operating a cryptocurrency money laundering service called Audi A6.Since its launch in 2021, the service has received approximately 10,333 bitcoins, valued at over $389 million at the time of the transactions, of which at least $19.234 million worth of bitcoins came directly from illegal sources such as dark web markets and ransomware organizations.A joint international law enforcement operation has seized and frozen the servers, domain names, and Telegram accounts associated with Audi A6.