US says it helped crack Madagascar online scam centers

US judicial authorities said Wednesday they played a key role in smashing online scam centers in Madagascar that were operated by citizens of China.

Late last year the US Justice Department created a unit tasked with fighting online scam networks that use cryptocurrency, are based in Southeast Asia and operate on behalf of presumed Chinese crime gangs.

The unit's latest actions included taking down the Telegram channels of Xinbi Guarantee, a scamming marketplace, and seizing $52 million in crypto money, Jeanne Pirro, the US attorney for the District of Columbia, told a news conference Wednesday.

"Shinby Marketplace has over 650,000 users. It's housed on Telegram, and it's where vendors market their services to scam ops," Pirro added.

This includes creating custom scam investment and laundering websites, she said.

The US Treasury simultaneously announced sanctions against Shinbi Guarantee, which was already hit by British sanctions, and two entities that support its activities.

"It should be no surprise these networks are spreading across the globe," Pirro said. "They're no longer just centered in Southeast Asia. They now operate in hubs across Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Central America."

She said over the past two weeks US investigators had gone to Madagascar, a country in the Indian Ocean off the east coast of Africa, to help take down 13 scam centers run by Chinese citizens. This led to the arrest of 500 scammers, she said.

The Madagascar justice ministry said this week that "a first wave" of 50 Chinese citizens were sent back home after being convicted in Madagascar of crimes related to online scams.

The ministry insisted these people were not simply freed but rather will serve prison sentences in China ranging from two to 10 years, depending on whether they were lower-level or bosses in the scam activities.

The Chinese embassy in Madagascar said 50 Chinese citizens were in fact sent home from that African country and it praised what it called judicial cooperation between the two nations.

The US Justice Department said these 50 people were tried and convicted in Madagascar as part of the campaign discussed by Pirro.

Several countries in Southeast Asia, like Myanmar and Cambodia, are known to be home to vast online scam centers using forced labor by people of many nationalities, often citizens of China.

Pirro said revenue taken in by these sprawling facilities is estimated at $40 billion a year, including $12 billion from duped Americans.