The U.S. government will return $7 million in seized funds to victims of fraudulent encryption investment websites.

On March 24, Cointelegraph reported that the U.S. government is seeking to return $7 million to victims of social engineering scams who were tricked into transferring money to fake Crypto Assets investment platforms. According to a statement from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia, the scam involved perpetrators first contacting the victims to gain their trust, and then directing them to websites disguised as legitimate Crypto Assets investment platforms. Once the victims made deposits, the funds would be transferred through more than 75 bank accounts, nominally belonging to shell companies, and then "fraudulently" sent abroad, appearing to be domestic remittances, even though the funds were actually moved to banks outside the U.S. "When the victims attempted to withdraw funds, the criminals would coerce them into transferring money again by claiming that the victims 'needed to pay taxes on the supposed gains.'" In 2023, the U.S. Secret Service seized part of the funds from a foreign bank and initiated a civil forfeiture process by filing a lawsuit in U.S. District Court. However, the bank also made a claim on these funds, and the U.S. government ultimately reached an agreement to return $7 million of the seized funds to the victims.