Key Takeaways
- Operation HAECHI VI, a large-scale international financial crime operation, recovered $439 million and froze 68,000 bank accounts.
- Police agencies from 40 countries targeted cyber-enabled crimes like investment fraud and romance scams.
- The operation specifically froze 400 cryptocurrency wallets, recovering $16 million in digital assets directly from them.
Table of Contents
A Coordinated Global Financial Crime Operation Assault on Cybercrime
The financial crime operation, codenamed HAECHI VI, ran from April to August 2025 and involved police forces from 40 countries. The sweep targeted all sorts of contemporary cybercrimes, including voice phishing, investment fraud, business email compromise (BEC), and romance scams. The scale and extent of the cooperation were monumental in that more than 68,000 bank accounts were blocked as being used in connection with laundering illicit funds. This shows a major increase in how well international agencies can track and disrupt digital financial flows.
Crypto at the Forefront of Enforcement
A primary focus of this financial crime operation was the illicit use of digital assets. Authorities successfully identified the use of digital assets for illicit purposes. Authorities successfully identified and froze close to 400 cryptocurrency wallets linked to criminal networks. From these wallets alone, approximately $16 million in stolen digital assets was recovered. This serves as evidence of the increasing use of crypto by organized crime, and, importantly, law enforcement’s increasing capacity to track and seize funds through international cooperation.
Read also: Epic Interpol Operation Serengeti 2.0 Nabs 1,200 Cybercriminals in Africa-Wide Crackdown
Notable Takedowns and the Path to Recovery
The operation yielded several high-profile successes. One organization based in Portugal was dismantled that had hijacked social security payments, with 45 arrests. In Thailand, money was seized by authorities in the nation’s largest recovery, $6.6 million, from a BEC scam that targeted a Japanese company. INTERPOL’s I-GRIP system proved vital, enabling real-time freezing of transactions, such as the full recovery of $3.91 million for a Korean steel company.
Read also: Seoul Police Dismantle $30M Crypto Korean Hacking Organization with Chainalysis
A Powerful Message to Criminals
The success of this financial crime operation, HAECHI VI, sends a clear message: the idea that crypto is a criminal free-for-all space is fading. TO this point, international police agencies are now developing legal frameworks and cooperative tools to investigate and track criminals in the digital world, proving that asset recovery in the cyber financial crime space is now possible.
Final Thought: As law enforcement’s crypto-tracking capabilities improve, will that change the fundamental way that criminals choose to move and store illicit funds?
FAQs
What is Operation HAECHI VI?
Operation HAECHI VI is an INTERPOL-led, multi-phased international operation specifically targeting cyber-enabled financial crimes across numerous countries.
What is I-GRIP?
INTERPOL Global Rapid Intervention of Payments (I-GRIP) is a system that allows member countries to request the near-instant freezing of criminal funds in bank accounts across jurisdictions.
What types of crimes were targeted?
The financial crime operation focused on seven primary crimes: investment fraud, romance scams, sextortion, voice phishing, business email compromise, e-commerce fraud, and money laundering from illegal online gambling.
For more international financial crime operation stories, read: Thai Police Dismantle $15M Crypto Scam Ring Targeting South Koreans
