US Restrained $938M in Scam-Linked Crypto — Why ‘Restrained’ Isn’t ‘Returned’

That is the exact amount of cryptocurrency the U.S. Justice Department’s Scam Center Strike Force says it has restrained from Southeast Asian scam networks. The figure sits on the strike force’s page at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, updated October 15, and it is stated there in a single sentence: “The Strike Force Crypto Seizure team has restrained $938,460,156.82 in crypto currency from these schemes.” At a White House roundtable on cybercrime on October 21, the administration rounded the number up, describing “nearly $1 billion” in scam-linked crypto as frozen. Both statements are defensible.