Crypto, AI, Slavery: The UN Unveils a $114 Billion Criminal Empire

A criminal economy with the GDP of a state. Fraud schemes linked to networks operating from Southeast Asia inflicted losses of between $88.3 billion and $114.1 billion in 2025 across the Asia-Pacific region, according to a report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime published on July 21. This amount is more than three times higher than the estimates for 2023. At the heart of this industry: scam centers, forced labor, and crypto used to move and launder profits.

Key Points

• Losses related to scams reached between $88.3 billion and $114.1 billion in 2025.
• The networks operate like franchises pooling fraud, crypto laundering, human trafficking, and data collection.
• Individuals from at least 80 countries have been identified in scam centers.
• Malvertising increased by 42% in 2025, while AI and deepfakes industrialize fraud.
• US authorities are seeking to confiscate over $25 million in cryptocurrencies in five recent cases.

Organized crime goes franchise mode

The UNODC describes a fundamental restructuring of regional crime. Organizations that were once confined to a territory or specialty now form a transnational economy in which each group sells its services to others: laundering, fraud, human trafficking, or data collection.

Delphine Schantz, the UNODC's regional representative, compares this model to a business franchise, with specialized departments connected to the same infrastructure. The networks are partly abandoning physical smuggling in favor of digital services, financial platforms, and tools that are difficult to attribute to a specific actor.

The fuel for this industry remains human. Workers from at least 80 countries and territories have been identified in scam compounds, where some trafficking victims are forced to carry out investment scams or emotional scams (known as Pig Butchering in English).

The networks are now seeking recruits who speak French, English, German, Spanish, or other European languages to broaden their target.

The UNODC also reports the rise of a new smuggling corridor in the Sulu and Celebes seas, between Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines, as well as the gamification of online gambling to attract a younger audience.

Crypto, AI, and Starlink equip scam factories

The networks use generative AI, deepfakes, and automation to multiply victims. Malvertising, which hijacks legitimate advertising networks to spread malware, increased by 42% year-on-year in 2025.

Satellite internet access, particularly via Starlink, allows fraudulent centers to set up in isolated areas and become less dependent on local telecom networks.

The gains are then moved and laundered in cryptocurrencies, while many regional police forces still lack specialists capable of tracking these flows.

However, the response is beginning to target the funds. On July 21, US authorities initiated five civil forfeiture proceedings involving over $25 million in cryptocurrencies linked to various scams.

In October 2025, they had already launched the largest bitcoin forfeiture proceeding in history: 127,271 BTC, then valued at around $15 billion, allegedly linked to the Prince Group of Chen Zhi.

The blockchain thus constitutes both one of the financial circuits of this industry and a sustainable lead for investigators. For the UNODC, the challenge now is to train police, seize profits, and coordinate prosecutions across borders. Without this cooperation, the networks will simply continue to change countries, names, and infrastructure.

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