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63 Arrested, Crypto Millions Frozen As FBI, DOJ Team Up With Meta, Coinbase And Starlink To Bust Scammers

Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times,

More than 1 million scam-related online accounts were taken down, and millions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency were frozen, as part of a crackdown on Southeast Asian scam networks.

Scam center workers, many of whom were trafficked and forced to work for criminals, are guarded by Karen Border Guard troops in Myawaddy, Burma, on Feb. 26, 2025. Stringer/Reuters

The crackdown operations, conducted by U.S. and international agencies led by the Department of Justice (DOJ), began on May 18, when the DOJ's Scam Center Strike Force brought together the FBI, Royal Thai Police, and law enforcement agencies from Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, and New Zealand to identify and disrupt criminal scam networks.

Meta, Microsoft, Starlink, and Coinbase were part of joint operations held in Washington and Bangkok, Meta said in a June 3 statement.

"More than a million online assets were disrupted as a result of the operation - including 1.4 million accounts, pages, and groups across Facebook and Instagram, 20,000 Microsoft accounts, and thousands of Starlink kits - and the Royal Thai Police has arrested 63 individuals involved in scam operations," Meta said.

Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase "froze more than $3 million in cryptocurrency assets tied to criminal networks." In addition, Starlink "terminated connectivity for thousands of Starlink kits that were attributed to unlawful use," it said.

Criminal syndicates behind the fraud have exploited millions of people globally via romance scams and investment fraud, and through utilizing forced labor. This makes coordinated disruption critical to protecting people, Meta said.

FBI Director Kash Patel thanked Meta for the company's assistance in a June 3 post on X, and said the operation was "just the beginning!"

The DOJ said that the joint initiative interrupted malicious network connections hosted by scammers. Moreover, servers and hosting infrastructure associated with the scam networks in Southeast Asia were decommissioned.

Many scam centers are run from Laos, Cambodia, and Burma along the border with Thailand, across several industrial-scale compounds.

As for forced labor, criminal networks lure unsuspecting people to Thailand with promises of high-paying jobs, then seize their identification and coerce them to work at such sites. The victims run scams against targets under the threat of violence.

In its recent statement, Meta said that intelligence-sharing among entities has led to the identification of several potential new scam center locations and networks.

"Blockchain technology is one of the most powerful tools we have in the fight against financial crime," Leah Bressack, vice president at Coinbase, said.

"Unlike traditional financial systems, the transparent and immutable nature of transaction data means bad actors can't hide - every transaction leaves a trail. That transparency is exactly what allowed us to work with law enforcement to trace, freeze, and disrupt these criminal networks."

Crackdown On Fraud

The crackdown follows President Donald Trump's signing of an executive order on March 6 to counter scam operations - Combating Cybercrime, Fraud, and Predatory Schemes Against American Citizens.

"Cybercrime, fraud, and predatory schemes are draining American families of their life savings, stealing the benefits of years of work, and destroying the lives of our youth," Trump said in the order.

"It is the policy of the United States to protect Americans from, and harden our financial and digital systems against, these threats. The United States shall counter attacks on Americans with a commensurate response that includes law enforcement, diplomacy, and potential offensive actions."

According to the recent DOJ statement, the Scam Center Strike Force is a "critical node" in executing Trump's order.

Online scams pose a major financial threat to Americans. An April 2025 report from the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center revealed that the center received 859,532 complaints of suspected internet crimes in 2024.

The total financial losses from these crimes amounted to $16 billion, a 33 percent increase from the previous year.

Older adults were significantly affected, with 147,127 complaints filed by people aged 60 or older, totaling $4.88 billion in losses.

Tyler Durden Thu, 06/04/2026 - 17:00

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Communist Hasan Piker Blames "Homo-Fascism" After Scott Wiener Crushes His Preferred SF Candidate

Far-left Turkish-American millionaire and Twitch streamer Hasan Piker lashed out during a Tuesday livestream after his friend, San Francisco congressional candidate Saikat Chakrabarti, was badly defeated in the primary race to succeed Nancy Pelosi.

Chakrabarti, a former aide to the unhinged socialist NY Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, spent $10 million of his own money but was polling around 15% with about half the vote counted. 

Piker strangely blamed Chakrabarti's poor performance on San Francisco's urban layout and car dependency, despite the city's reputation for public transit.

He then pivoted into attacking the city's affluent liberal voter base: 

You know what it is? I know what it is. F**king car-reliant infrastructure. The more cars you have, the more chuddy the f**king city is.

That's it. No public transit. No f**king people living close to one another. It's just f**king rich liberals who just want homo-fascism in the country, that's it. They want gay fascism. They want gay techno-fascism.

X user Dipper captured Piker's livestream meltdown in a post titled "He's so fucking mad, commies down horrendously."

He's so fucking mad, commies down horrendously. https://t.co/VAySH1m6kV pic.twitter.com/J0SM3dXEO9

— Dipper (@dipperid) June 3, 2026

Late Wednesday, Chakrabarti blamed his loss on outside money from AI, crypto, and AIPAC-linked interests ... 

The campaign has ended, but the mission remains. We must wrest control of our country away from the corporations and back into the hands of people. And the only force capable of doing that is a movement of people unlike any we have seen in generations. Thank you to everyone who… pic.twitter.com/P1yDPz4Aie

— Saikat Chakrabarti for Congress (@saikatc) June 4, 2026

As for Piker, he's made the news in recent weeks after committing an operational-security mistake by publicly identifying American Marxist tech financier Neville Roy Singham, who has reportedly been living in China and has been linked by The New York Times to CCP-aligned propaganda networks, as a major financier of pro-Marxist revolutionary NGOs operating inside the U.S.

The question political observers are asking is: What has the Democratic Party become? Really it has been radicalized, championing anti-American values, promoting socialism and Marxism, aligning with revolutionary far-left NGOs funding chaos in the streets, and some of that may point to foreign influence operations run through the Singham network and other dark-money-funded NGOs.

"This realignment of Democratic Party power, away from the old-school, Ivy League establishment, into the hands of the socialists, the radical Muslims and the guys with Nazi tats, will have profound implications for the 2028 presidential race," Owen Gregorian noted on X.

The age of the Democratic Party blocking fringe outsiders is officially over | David Marcus, Fox News

There were two events on Tuesday that offered more proof of a national Democratic Party establishment that has lost control: One was a meeting, one an election, and both are… pic.twitter.com/ENMYpVJmIe

— Owen Gregorian (@OwenGregorian) June 4, 2026

Democrats have become the party of incoherent lunatics.

Tyler Durden Thu, 06/04/2026 - 16:40

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Obamacare Fraud Estimated To Cost $25 Billion This Year: Report

Authored by Lawrence Wilson via The Epoch Times,

Taxpayers will foot the bill for up to $25 billion in improper Obamacare payments due to organized fraud and improper enrollments in 2026, according to a June 3 report from Paragon Health Institute.

A pedestrian passes an insurance agency that offers Affordable Care Act plans in Miami, on Jan. 28, 2021. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Some 6.2 million enrollments in the healthcare exchanges during the most recent open-enrollment period were improper, the report said, accounting for 27 percent of all enrollments.

The conservative think tank has studied fraud in the Obamacare program since 2024.

The problem of improper enrollments persists despite recent attempts to curtail it, and appears to involve organized efforts by unscrupulous insurance brokers, the report concluded.

Meanwhile, some industry groups have criticized the findings.

Incentives For Fraud

Obamacare's premium subsidies, which cover 100 percent of the health coverage policy for many beneficiaries, and referral bonuses offer an incentive for both enrollees and brokers to abuse the system, the report concluded.

Researchers identified improper enrollments by comparing Obamacare data to Census Bureau population estimates. The improper enrollments were calculated by a state-by-state comparison of enrollments in the lowest income category to the number of people having that income level in the state.

The lowest income category is 100 percent to 150 percent of the federal poverty level, or about $16,000 to $24,000 per year for an individual or about $27,000 to $41,000 for a family of three.

Enrollees with incomes at that level receive the highest subsidies. During the 2026 open enrollment period, 29 percent of enrollees chose a plan with a $0 premium.

That gives enrollees and the agents who sign people up for Obamacare an incentive to misstate their income, the report concluded.

The American Hospital Association has said Paragon's research results are not valid due to flawed methodology. "The Census uses different income and household size definitions than the Marketplace so there is no possibility of the data matching," the group said in an August 2025 statement. The association also said the Census relies on reported income but Obamacare asks for projected income.

The total value of Obamacare subsidies to be paid in 2026 is $88 billion, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Agents who enroll individuals or families in Obamacare earn a commission averaging around $20 per enrollee per month for as long as the policy is active.

Obamacare received more than 23 million enrollments during the 2026 open enrollment period.

Subsidies and commissions are paid on "effectuated" enrollments, meaning enrollees who selected a plan and paid the initial premium.

The number of effectuated enrollments for 2026 has not yet been released, though about 96 percent of signups became effectuated enrollments in 2025.

Weak Controls

Congress allowed Obamacare's enhanced subsidies to expire in 2025, which reduced the number of people eligible for a 100 percent subsidy.

Yet improper enrollments persist in part because of automatic re-enrollment, said Brian Blase, Paragon's founder and president.

"Automatic re-enrollment remains pervasive. Nearly 40 percent of 2026 exchange enrollees were automatically re-enrolled," Blase told The Epoch Times by email.

That allows previous improper enrollments to carry over from year to year.

Congress and the Trump administration have taken actions to strengthen checks on improper enrollment, but most are not yet in effect.

Enacted law will require annual income eligibility verification. That takes effect in 2028.

The administration implemented stricter verification rules in May 2026, but they did not impact the 2026 open enrollment, which ended Jan. 15.

Legal Action Center, a human rights advocacy group, has opposed mandatory re-enrollment and income verification because it places an administrative burden on those dealing with substance abuse, mental health conditions, or criminal convictions.

"There is an ongoing need for an automatic re-enrollment mechanism, given that some people do not actively return to the Marketplace to make plan choices during open enrollment," the group wrote to Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in April 2025. Rather than requiring action on the part of enrollees, Legal Action Center urged the federal government to verify continued eligibility using existing data such as the Social Security Administration and state unemployment databases.

Bad Actors

Unscrupulous brokers appear to have contributed to improper enrollments by steering consumers toward plans that pay larger commissions, Blase said. And the report suggests that some agents have created fictitious enrollments.

"Some brokers and agents continue steering low-income enrollees into $0-premium plans," Blase said, even though it may not provide them the best value.

Bronze plans have no premium for an enrollee at 100 percent of the federal poverty level. But the out-of-pocket costs could total nearly $7,500 per year, according to Paragon.

The same individual could qualify for a silver plan for which the enrollee premium plus out-of-pocket costs totaled $415.

"One plausible explanation is that brokers moved enrollees into $0-premium bronze or gold plans because some consumers will only enroll if coverage is free," Blase said. "And phantom enrollees cannot pay premiums."

Paragon defines phantom enrollments as those that are fictitious, or unaware they are enrolled, or are enrolled in other coverage.

In 2024, 35 percent of Obamacare enrollments reported no medical claims. "The percentage of zero-claim enrollees in the exchanges is dramatically higher than observed in the broader private market and strongly suggests a substantial number of phantom enrollees."

Also, about half of all enrollees reported unknown race or ethnicity in 2026, a trend that began in 2024, according to the report. Researchers say this could indicate that the agents had little contact with the enrollees.

"These findings suggest that a substantial portion of recent ACA exchange enrollment growth may not reflect legitimate increases in insured individuals," the report stated.

America's Health Insurance Plans, an association of health insurers, has been critical of Paragon's previous research on phantom enrollees.

"A 'no-claims' year is evidence that a consumer stayed healthy or only had a few months of coverage - not that taxpayer money was misdirected or that their policy was illegitimate," the group said in an August 2025 statement.

Tyler Durden Thu, 06/04/2026 - 16:20