Global Cybercrime Crackdown: Interpol Operation HAECHI VI Recovers $439 Million in Stolen Assets
As part of Operation HAECHI VI, coordinated by Interpol, authorities successfully recovered $342 million in state currencies and an additional $97 million in physical and digital assets, including cryptocurrency. The operation, conducted from April to August 2025, involved law enforcement agencies from 40 countries and territories.
The campaign targeted seven categories of digitally enabled financial crime: vishing (telephone fraud), romance scams, online sextortion, fraudulent investment schemes, laundering of illicit proceeds via illegal gambling sites, business email compromise (BEC) attacks, and e-commerce fraud.
Participants worked together to identify and dismantle fraudulent operations and their associated money-laundering channels. As a result, more than 68,000 bank accounts were blocked, nearly 400 crypto wallets frozen, and around $16 million in illicitly obtained digital assets were returned.
Several countries carried out large-scale domestic crackdowns. In Portugal, investigators uncovered a complex network of interconnected criminal groups siphoning funds meant for socially vulnerable families. The perpetrators gained unauthorized access to social accounts, altered banking details, and stole $270,000 from 531 victims, leading to 45 arrests.
In Thailand, police seized $6.6 million in assets in the country’s largest-ever single confiscation linked to a BEC scheme. The victim, a Japanese corporation, unknowingly transferred a large sum to a fictitious Bangkok-based company controlled by a transnational syndicate of Thai and West African nationals.
A crucial tool in halting fraudulent transfers was the I-GRIP (Global Rapid Intervention of Payments) mechanism, launched by Interpol in 2022. Leveraging I-GRIP, Korea and the UAE intercepted $3.91 million transferred to a Dubai account after a Korean steel company detected forged transport documents. The funds were fully recovered.
The operation was accompanied by dozens of local raids. In Macau (China), suspects involved in schemes imitating legitimate payment services were arrested. In Brazil, police dismantled networks engaged in online banking fraud. In Malaysia, dozens of laptops, phones, and SIM cards were seized from a fraud syndicate. In the Philippines, authorities pursued cases tied to offshore gaming platforms (POGOs) suspected of laundering illicit funds.
The HAECHI program is funded by the Government of the Republic of Korea. The sixth phase drew participation from law enforcement bodies across Albania, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Canada, the Cayman Islands, China, Germany, Ghana, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Japan, Kazakhstan, the Republic of Korea, Liechtenstein, Macau, Malaysia, the Maldives, Nigeria, the Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, the Seychelles, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, Timor-Leste, the UAE, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Vietnam.
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