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U.S. Disrupts Xinbi Guarantee Scam Marketplace, Freezes $52.8 Million in Crypto
US DOJ and Treasury disrupt Xinbi Guarantee Telegram scam marketplace, sanctioning it and freezing $52.8M in USDT across 52 wallets.
The DOJ seized Xinbi Guarantee's Telegram channels and cryptocurrency wallets while OFAC sanctioned the marketplace, freezing $52.8 million in USDT from 52 wallets and bringing the Scam Center Strike Force's total restrained funds to roughly $938 million. Elliptic, which worked with the Secret Service, estimates Xinbi has processed $30 billion in transactions since around 2022, serving pig-butchering scam operators and links to North Korean hackers, Jin Bei Group, and Prince Group TCO. The strike force dismantled 13 scam compounds in Madagascar, seizing over 3,200 devices and interviewing roughly 400 arrestees, with about 30 Chinese compound leaders repatriated to China. After Tether froze funds, Xinbi began converting remaining USDT into the USDD stablecoin.
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U.S. Sanctions Iran-Linked Hackers Behind Critical Infrastructure Breaches
U.S. Treasury sanctioned nearly 60 Iran-linked entities, including MOIS-affiliated Mabna Institute hackers behind breaches of U.S. critical infrastructure and millions in crypto theft.
The U.S. Treasury launched Operation Economic Outcast, designating nearly 60 Iran-linked entities, individuals, and vessels across nuclear, missile, oil, cyber, and digital asset networks. Five sanctioned individuals are members of the Tehran-based Mabna Institute indicted last week; three allegedly breached and exfiltrated data from U.S. energy, defense, healthcare, IT, and financial organizations since late 2023. TRM Labs traced roughly $16.8 million across 30 wallets tied to the members, and the State Department announced a reward of up to $10 million. The action follows Iranian hacking of FBI Director Kash Patel's email and attacks on over 30 U.S. water and wastewater utilities.
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Germany moves to give spy agencies hacking and sabotage powers
Germany's cabinet approved a 732-page bill granting BND and BfV intelligence agencies new hacking, sabotage, and disinformation powers pending parliamentary approval.
Germany's cabinet approved draft legislation that would give the foreign intelligence service BND and domestic agency BfV active operational powers, including hacking foreign systems, sabotaging supply chains with faulty components, disabling servers of hostile state-sponsored hackers, and feeding false information to extremists inside Germany. The 732-page bill, the largest overhaul of postwar German spy laws, requires telecom carriers and digital providers to assist the agencies, bars measures endangering life, and imposes new statutory controls on how agencies use AI analysis, including judge-supervised spot checks of machine-generated outputs. The reforms stem from a Federal Constitutional Court ruling on surveillance proportionality and are expected to pass parliament, with the government aiming for the law to take effect next year; civil liberties groups plan to challenge it.
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