Dispatches
Long-form, evidence-graded investigations. Each dispatch carries a full source manifest, and says plainly what we cannot yet verify.
97 countries, 5,811 arrests: INTERPOL closes its largest anti-fraud operation of the year
Operation First Light 2026 intercepted USD 293 million in fiat and virtual assets and identified more than 142,000 victims of social engineering fraud worldwide.
Media company CFO pleads guilty in $67 million scheme that washed fraud proceeds through crypto and prepaid cards
Weidong "Bill" Guan, former chief financial officer of The Epoch Times, admitted directing a scheme that bought crime proceeds loaded onto gift cards and prepaid debit cards at 70 to 80 cents on the dollar, then moved the funds into company accounts as fake donations.
Wisconsin prosecutors file criminal complaint against Circle over refusal to return stolen victim funds
The USDC issuer froze a scam victim's stolen stablecoins on a court order, then, prosecutors allege, refused the order to give them back.
Money laundering watchdog maps Southeast Asia's scam hubs to Special Economic Zones
The Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering finds the compound economy anchored in zones where jurisdiction is unclear, enforcement is limited, and regulatory standards are inconsistent.
China repatriates 307 more nationals from Myanmar scam hub; 920 foreign nationals still awaiting transfer
The Myawaddy clearance campaign continues, and state media gives a rare count of the population still inside the pipeline.
Indonesia deports 92 Chinese nationals from Batam scam network and bans them for life
The deportees, arrested in a May raid on an apartment complex housing an online investment scam operation, were flown to Guangzhou and handed to China's Ministry of Public Security for prosecution.
Inside the Shunda machine: two indictments, $700 million restrained, 503 scam sites seized
The Justice Department's Scam Center Strike Force moved against the operators of a cryptocurrency-fraud compound in Burma, the clearest public picture yet of how a compound is financed, staffed, and dismantled.
The senator's casinos: OFAC designates Kok An and a 28-target Cambodian compound network
Treasury's action connects political office, casino real estate, and forced-labor scam compounds in a single designation, the ownership story behind the fraud economy.
The epidemic migrates: Prince-linked figures and a resort project in Timor-Leste
An OCCRP and Guardian Australia investigation found that a politically connected crypto resort project involved three people later sanctioned in the U.S. crackdown on the Prince Group. The compound economy is no longer a Mekong story.