The U.S. is “fully committed to leading the global fight” against the transnational criminal networks that have set up scamming compounds throughout Southeast Asia, a senior FBI official said Tuesday. 

Scott Schelble, the deputy assistant director of the FBI’s International Operations Division, told reporters that he recently met with law enforcement officials in Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam to discuss the region’s scam operations. 

From the compounds, a largely indentured workforce targets potential victims worldwide with pig-butchering and other cryptocurrency investment scams. A vast and sophisticated money laundering ecosystem has developed to obfuscate the billions in illicit funds stolen each year. 

Schelble lauded the FBI and Department of Justice’s partnership with the Royal Thai Police, saying they “work side by side, and together we have achieved real successes in disrupting these criminal networks, identifying victims, and targeting the financial infrastructure that supports these crimes.” 

His visit to the region coincides with some of the most significant enforcement actions against the scamming industry since it took root in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.

China recently executed the leaders of several crime families from Myanmar who were behind industrial-scale scamming compounds. In October, the DOJ indicted the chairman of the Cambodian conglomerate Prince Group, Chen Zhi, on charges that he operated a sprawling scamming empire, and seized about $15 billion worth of bitcoin from his accounts. Zhi was then extradited to China in January.

Since the downfall of Prince Group, Cambodian authorities have launched a crackdown on scamming operations, after years of accusations the government was turning a blind eye to the criminal networks. Compounds throughout the country have been raided, and released workers — many of whom were trafficked into scamming and were stripped of their passports — have flooded the streets of Phnom Penh.   

On his trip to the region, Schelble visited several compounds, which “fundamentally changes your understanding of the threat.” 

“There are entire facilities dedicated to fraud on an industrial scale,” he said. “ And behind these operations are real victims – often Americans who lose their life savings, and in many cases, there are trafficked individuals who are forced to participate in this criminal activity.”

Asked if there are indications that the criminal operations are simply moving in the wake of crackdowns to other locations, Schelble emphasized that “it’s not as simple as one location or another location.” 

“This is very much a regional issue that no one country can combat alone,” he said. “It will require a partnered aspect and a coordinated aspect if we’re going to properly take care of it.”