US Sanctions Two Firms Behind Xinbi’s $24 Billion Scam Network, DOJ Seizes Its Telegram Channels
A Chinese-language marketplace that ran on Telegram for four years, processing more than $24 billion in digital assets and cash for scam operators around the world, just lost its communication channels and two of the companies that kept it running.
A federal court authorizes the takedown
Court records show the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia authorized the seizure of the Telegram channels Xinbi Guarantee used to operate its marketplace. Prosecutors describe Xinbi as a Chinese-language escrow platform that has run on Telegram since roughly 2022, connecting scam operators with vendors selling money laundering services, fake investment websites, and — according to the seizure warrant — help recruiting trafficking victims to work inside scam compounds in Southeast Asia.
The Scam Center Strike Force moves on the wallets
The Justice Department’s Scam Center Strike Force, working alongside the Treasury Department, seized two wallets that Xinbi had used to collect payments from its vendors, holding roughly $12 million combined. Separately, prosecutors moved to restrain 47 additional wallets believed to be tied to the same money-laundering network and its associated merchants, initiating forfeiture proceedings against them — a much broader sweep than a single freeze, targeting the network’s infrastructure rather than one account.
Sanctions on the platform’s support network
Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control designated Xinbi Guarantee a significant transnational criminal organization under Executive Order 13581. OFAC also sanctioned two companies it says kept Xinbi’s technical operations running: Singapore-based SafeW Technology, developer of the SafeW communications app vendors used, and Cambodia-based Anwen Technology, developer of the XinbiPay wallet infrastructure. Since 2022, Xinbi and its network are alleged to have processed more than $24 billion in digital assets and traditional currency — a scale that puts it among the largest scam-marketplace takedowns of the year.
What the forfeiture process means next
Seizing a wallet and permanently forfeiting it are two different legal steps. The 47 wallets identified in the sweep now move through a forfeiture case, where the government must establish in court that the funds are tied to criminal proceeds before they can be permanently confiscated rather than simply frozen. That process will determine how much of the money linked to Xinbi’s network the government ultimately recovers — and it is likely to keep surfacing new wallet addresses as investigators trace funds through the network’s laundering chain.
Scam-marketplace investigations often take months or years to resolve fully, and frozen or sanctioned assets are not guaranteed to be recovered by victims. This article is for informational purposes only and is not legal or financial advice.
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