An international law enforcement operation, codenamed Operation HAECHI VI, has recovered 439 million dollars in cash and cryptocurrency from cybercrime groups between April and August 2025. The effort involved authorities from 40 countries working together.
According to an official statement, “An INTERPOL-coordinated operation across 40 countries and territories has resulted in the recovery of USD 342 million in government-backed currencies, along with USD 97 million in physical and virtual assets.”
The operation focused on seven major types of online financial crimes including voice phishing, romance scams, online sextortion, investment fraud, money laundering linked to illegal online gambling, business email compromise, and e-commerce fraud.
During the crackdown, 68,000 bank accounts were blocked, 400 cryptocurrency wallets were frozen, and 16 million dollars in illicit digital profits were seized.
In Portugal, police dismantled a large syndicate that stole 228,000 euros from 531 vulnerable families by hacking into social security accounts and altering bank details. A total of 45 suspects were arrested. In Thailand, police seized 6.6 million dollars from a transnational crime group involving Thai and West African nationals who tricked a Japanese company in a major business email compromise scam. In another case, Korea and the United Arab Emirates recovered 3.91 million dollars stolen from a steel company after forged shipping documents were detected. The funds were stopped through INTERPOL’s I-GRIP stop-payment system.
Theos Badege, Director pro tempore of INTERPOL’s Financial Crime and Anti-Corruption Centre, said, “While many people believe that funds lost to fraud and scams are often irretrievable, the outcomes of HAECHI operations demonstrate that recovery is indeed possible. As one of INTERPOL’s flagship financial crime operations, HAECHI is a prime example of how global cooperation can protect communities and safeguard financial systems. We encourage more member countries to join us in this collective effort, so that meaningful difference can be made in the fight against cyber-enabled crime.”
The previous phase, Operation HAECHI V, which ran from July to November 2024, resulted in the arrest of over 5,500 suspects and the seizure of more than 400 million dollars. That operation also targeted phishing, romance scams, sextortion, investment fraud, online gambling, business email compromise, and e-commerce fraud.
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