FBI Director Kash Patel posted the latest numbers from Operation Blackout on Tuesday, the bureau’s campaign against overseas scam compounds targeting Americans.
Patel put the haul at more than $15 billion in assets and cryptocurrency. More than 500 fake investment sites have been shut down, hundreds of people arrested, and thousands of trafficked workers freed. The FBI also warned more than 10,000 Americans before they sent money to scammers, saving more than $500 million, according to Patel. More than 20 countries are now involved.
OPERATION BLACKOUT.
— FBI Director Kash Patel (@FBIDirectorKash) September 21, 2026
These aren’t random scammers sitting behind laptops. They built fortified compounds, trafficked human beings, forced slave labor, and constructed an international fraud machine targeting Americans.
So we’re dismantling the machine.
$15+ BILLION in assets… pic.twitter.com/5y1sqCKE1B
Patel went straight at what sits behind the fake investment pitch or random text message.
“These aren’t random scammers sitting behind laptops. They built fortified compounds, trafficked human beings, forced slave labor, and constructed an international fraud machine targeting Americans.”
The FBI video starts with the other end of that operation: a text popping up on somebody’s phone.
“That harmless text on your phone, it didn't come from a hacker in a basement. It came from inside a fortified compound halfway around the world. Barbed wire, armed guards, the works.”
Those compounds can hold the scammers and another set of victims. The FBI says trafficked workers are forced to run phones, online accounts, and fraudulent websites. Some are held behind barbed wire and armed guards while targeting people thousands of miles away.
From the post, the bureau says that changed how it went after the scams.
“The victims are on both sides of the screen. So how do you fight something this big? The FBI stopped chasing scams one at a time and started tearing the whole machine apart with Operation Blackout.”
The centerpiece of Patel's $15 billion figure is a single historic forfeiture action tied to the Prince Holding Group case, the largest in Justice Department history.
Federal prosecutors charged Prince Group founder and chairman Chen Zhi last October with wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy. DOJ also moved to forfeit approximately 127,271 bitcoin, worth about $15 billion at the time. The cryptocurrency was already in U.S. government custody.
Prosecutors allege Prince Group operated forced-labor scam compounds across Cambodia. Workers held against their will were made to carry out cryptocurrency investment scams targeting victims in the United States and elsewhere. Zhi remains at large. The charges are allegations.
The FBI has also tried to reach victims before the money disappears.
Operation Level Up had contacted 8,935 cryptocurrency investment-fraud victims by March. Seventy-seven percent had no idea they were being scammed. DOJ estimated those warnings stopped another $562.7 million from going out the door. Investigators also seized more than 503 fake investment domains tied to victims the program found.
Behind every random text is a machine that the FBI is taking apart.