Argentine Prosecutors Arrest 24, Seize Over $8 Million in USDT in Multi-Ring Crypto Fraud Operation

Buenos Aires prosecutors arrested 24 people and seized more than 8 million USDT in Operation Fake Coins, conducting 90 simultaneous raids targeting three fraud rings. The schemes involved fake trading apps, WhatsApp hijacks, and Chinese-origin malware operations. The seizure exceeds the more than $2 million confiscated in the 2024 RainbowEx operation, marking the largest crypto bust by the province's specialized team.

Operation Fake Coins raids

• ▪Coordination for Operation Fake Coins ran through the Procuracion General's Equipo de Asistencia y Coordinacion en Materia de Criptoactivos, led by Dr. Rafael Garcia Borda and Dra. Sabrina Lamperti.
• ▪The Argentine Federal Police's Cybercrime Directorate executed the Operation Fake Coins raids.
• ▪The Buenos Aires Public Prosecutor's Office executed 90 simultaneous raids in the Operation Fake Coins enforcement action.
• ▪Operation Fake Coins raids yielded nearly 60 million pesos in cash and 80 mobile phones.
• ▪The Buenos Aires Public Prosecutor's Office called Operation Fake Coins one of the largest crypto-enforcement actions in the province's history.

Three fraud ring schemes

• ▪The Azul branch of the second fraud ring yielded 4,025 USDT seized from offshore accounts.
• ▪A single phone IMEI in the second fraud ring had received more than 100 WhatsApp and WhatsApp Business activation codes.
• ▪The dismantled fraud schemes in Operation Fake Coins caused total economic damage of roughly $2.4 million at recent exchange rates.
• ▪The dismantled fraud schemes in Operation Fake Coins caused total economic damage of almost 3 billion pesos across more than 100 separate complaints.

USDT seizure totals

• ▪Operation Fake Coins is the largest crypto bust by the Buenos Aires province's specialized crypto-assets team in recent memory.
• ▪The Operation Fake Coins seizure of more than 8 million USDT exceeds the more than $2 million in cryptocurrency confiscated in the 2024 RainbowEx operation.
• ▪The Buenos Aires Public Prosecutor's Office froze more than 8 million USDT across three fraud rings.
• ▪The Buenos Aires Public Prosecutor's Office seized more than 8 million USDT in the Operation Fake Coins enforcement action.
• ▪The bulk of the 8 million USDT seized in Operation Fake Coins came from the third fraud ring centered in San Isidro.

Argentina crypto enforcement framework

• ▪The Buenos Aires Procuracion General did not name the private virtual-asset-service providers that cooperated in freezing the 8 million USDT.
• ▪Argentina's Comision Nacional de Valores restructured the registry of Proveedores de Servicios de Activos Virtuales under General Resolution 1058 in 2025.
• ▪The Buenos Aires Procuracion General froze the 8 million USDT with the cooperation of private virtual-asset-service providers.

Criminal charges filed

• ▪The Buenos Aires Procuracion General has not published the specific charges against each of the 24 defendants in Operation Fake Coins.
• ▪The 24 detainees in Operation Fake Coins face charges including aggravated fraud, illicit association, money laundering, and intellectual-property violations.
• ▪The Buenos Aires Procuracion General has not set a date for the first preliminary hearings for the 24 defendants in Operation Fake Coins.

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