FinCEN links $12.7B to crypto scams run from Asian compounds

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network has put a staggering number on the damage done by so-called pig butchering scams: roughly $12.7B in suspected fraudulent transactions tied to digital asset investment schemes, reported between September 2023 and December 2025. That figure comes from a review of 33,904 Bank Secrecy Act filings, painting a picture of industrialized fraud that touches every US state and territory. The monthly growth rate of reported scam-related financial activity averaged 18%, meaning the problem isn’t just big. It’s accelerating. Inside the compound economy Pig butchering is a long-con social engineering play. Scammers build trust with victims over weeks or months, often posing as romantic interests or old friends, before steering them toward fraudulent crypto investment platforms. By the time the victim realizes the platform is fake, the funds have already been layered through a web of wallets and exchanges. FinCEN’s report identifies transnational criminal organizations based primarily in Cambodia, Myanmar, and Laos as the main operators. Many of these groups run physical compounds where workers, sometimes trafficking victims themselves, carry out scams at ...