Crypto: 52 million dollars seized in Madagascar, 13 scam farms dismantled

Thirteen scam farms wiped off the map. According to Agence France-Presse, Malagasy law enforcement and the U.S. Department of Justice dismantled thirteen online scam complexes set up on the Great Island, after two months of joint operations. Investigators blocked nearly 52 million dollars in cryptocurrencies in a single day and seized over 3,200 electronic devices.

One hundred forty-eight Chinese nationals convicted of online fraud have already been transferred to China to serve their sentences.

Key Points

• Thirteen online scam complexes closed in Madagascar during a joint operation with U.S. justice
• Nearly 52 million dollars in cryptocurrencies immobilized in twenty-four hours, over 3,200 terminals confiscated
• 148 convicted Chinese nationals handed over to Beijing, continuing the mass repatriations from Myanmar
• UNODC estimates the annual revenue of these networks to be between 27 and 37 billion dollars, now established in Africa

Madagascar: 52 million dollars in crypto frozen in a single day

According to AFP, these thirteen complexes all operated on the same model, mixing romance scams, fake financial investments, and cryptocurrency fraud. The Department of Justice uses the term restrained, a judicial freeze that immobilizes funds while a court decides on their final confiscation. Investigators took away 3,200 phones and computers, enough to equip as many operators each responsible for dozens of fake profiles on WhatsApp and dating apps.

The process has a name in the investigators' jargon, pig butchering, a literal translation of the Mandarin sha zhu pan. They fatten the target for weeks through a trusting relationship, sometimes romantic, before directing them to a fake investment platform and then emptying their wallet in one go. Some operators work under duress, recruited through fake job ads and held on-site with their passports confiscated.

The 148 convicted individuals handed over to Beijing extend a campaign initiated two years ago by Chinese authorities against their nationals involved in these networks. Several thousand of them had already been repatriated from Myanmar in early 2025, following the evacuation of scam enclaves in Myawaddy, on the Thai border. ![According to Agence France-Presse, Malagasy law enforcement and the U.S. Department of Justice dismantled thirteen online scam complexes set up on the Great Island, after two months of joint operations. Investigators blocked nearly 52 million dollars in cryptocurrencies in a single day and seized over 3,200 electronic devices.

One hundred forty-eight Chinese nationals convicted of online fraud have already been transferred to China to serve their sentences.](https://journalducoin-com.exactdn.com/app/uploads/2026/11/USA-autorites-Madagascar-arnaque-pig-butchering-chinois-crypto-justice.png?strip=all&quality=90&webp=90&lazy=1) ![According to Agence France-Presse, Malagasy law enforcement and the U.S. Department of Justice dismantled thirteen online scam complexes set up on the Great Island, after two months of joint operations. Investigators blocked nearly 52 million dollars in cryptocurrencies in a single day and seized over 3,200 electronic devices.

One hundred forty-eight Chinese nationals convicted of online fraud have already been transferred to China to serve their sentences.](https://journalducoin-com.exactdn.com/app/uploads/2026/11/USA-autorites-Madagascar-arnaque-pig-butchering-chinois-crypto-justice.png?strip=all&quality=90) International cooperation has enabled the dismantling of this Pig Butchering network -- Source: Account X

Crypto Scams: The Scam Industry Moves from Southeast Asia to Africa

This relocation was anticipated. In a report published in April 2025, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) already described the spread of these centers outside Southeast Asia, towards Africa and South America, under pressure from Burmese and Thai offensives. The organization estimates the annual revenues of these networks to be between 27 and 37 billion dollars for East and Southeast Asia alone. Madagascar, Zambia, and Angola were among the new locations identified.

If 52 million dollars could be immobilized in twenty-four hours, it is precisely because the money circulated on public ledgers accessible to any analyst. The same amounts passing through the Cambodian conglomerate Huione Group, cut off from the American financial system by the Treasury in May 2025, would have left no exploitable trail. The analysis company Elliptic had estimated 27 billion dollars in flows transiting through its marketplace Huione Guarantee.

This traceability produced in October 2025 the largest seizure in the history of the Department of Justice, with 127,271 bitcoins seized from Chen Zhi, president of the Cambodian Prince Group, worth about 15 billion dollars at the time. The 52 million from Madagascar weighs little in comparison, but they come from a territory that no one was monitoring three years ago.

The frozen funds will still have to go through a civil forfeiture procedure before a U.S. federal judge before any return to the victims. U.S. secret services had taken the same path in June 2025 with 225.3 million dollars in USDT seized from a pig butchering network, the largest cryptocurrency seizure ever made by this service.

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