by Ben Whedon
D.C. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro on Wednesday announced a large-scale bust linked to an illegal marketplace for scam services that resulted in the seizure of $52 million in laundered funds.
The operation targeted Xinbi Guarantee and included a strike force deployed to Madagascar to storm 13 Chinese-run compounds, according to the Justice Department.
Xinbi is a Chinese-language marketplace for illegal services run through social media platform Telegram.
“If Chinese organized crime can buy a custom website and a money laundering service the way you order takeout, then every American with a retirement account is in the blast radius,” Pirro said. “My Strike Force will continue to dismantle Chinese organized crime, those who facilitate it, and protect Main Street America.”
Tara McLeese, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Secret Service Washington Field Office, said, “After scamming money from hardworking Americans, criminals operating overseas laundered it through the Xinbi Guarantee network, which operated under the false assumption that they were out of the reach of U.S. law enforcement.”
“The efforts of our agents and investigative analysts to trace stolen funds and unveil the scope of this criminal network shows that while the methods of fraud may change, our resolve does not,” she added.
According to FBI Chicago Acting Special Agent in Charge Ryan Whalen, the “FBI will stop at nothing to protect the finances that hardworking Americans build over their lifetimes.”
“The FBI is committed to working with domestic and international partners around the globe to stop scammers before they attack and hold these criminals accountable,” he explained.
The operation was part of an effort by the DOJ’s Scam Center Strike Force that aims to identify and shut down scam centers across the globe.
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Ben Whedon is a reporter for Just the News. Zachery Schmidt is the digital editor of The Star News Network and contributed to this story.
