LONDON, Oct. 28, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Against the backdrop of new international guidance on improving asset recovery from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), Asset Reality and Operation Shamrock today announced a global strategic alliance to make it easier to seize crypto assets. Together, they will work to close the enforcement gap in combating crypto crime and to accelerate the return of stolen funds to victims and wider society.

Asset recovery has long been a global problem for law enforcement. FATF, the international standard-setting body, states that “countries intercept and recover less than one per cent of global illicit financial flows.” The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime estimates these flows to be between $4-$6 trillion per year.

Headlines featuring record-breaking seizures around the world, linked to modern slavery-based scam compounds across Southeast Asia, underscore a troubling truth: The criminal economy has evolved, and law enforcement is under pressure to keep up.

With billions in crypto-linked criminal proceeds left unrecovered every year, and a global victim count rising daily, this alliance marks a critical step toward equipping agencies with tools, training, and infrastructure.

“This isn’t just about crypto - it’s about systemic change,” said Aidan Larkin, co-founder and CEO of Asset Reality. “We’ve reached a moment where billion-dollar seizures are being triggered by individual victim reports. Too often victims’ assets are not recovered as local law enforcement doesn’t have the tools or training, or they rely on patchwork solutions that load the agency with risk. This alliance is going to change that.”

A Global Emergency

According to the latest report by Chainalysis, more than $75 billion in crypto is estimated to be linked to criminal or suspicious activity globally - and that’s only what’s been identified.

“Pig butchering” scams, a blend of online fraud and human trafficking, have affected hundreds of thousands worldwide. These operations are industrial in scale. In a recent reported case involving the Prince Group, which has been linked to a $15bn seizure, two of the compounds alone ran over 76,000 fake social media accounts using trafficked labor.

The crypto criminal ecosystem now mirrors state-level infrastructure, with networks stretching across Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and beyond.

“Chinese organized crime syndicates operating from Southeast Asia have weaponized artificial intelligence and expanded their operations globally,” said Erin West, Founder of Operation Shamrock. “This technological evolution threatens to scale their operations from thousands to millions of simultaneous victims. We need to support law enforcement to keep pace.”

The Strategic Alliance

Asset Reality and Operation Shamrock are aligning infrastructure with front-line experience to:

Deliver monthly free crypto seizure training to U.S. and international law enforcement through Operation Shamrock’s Crypto Coalition network of 2,400+ active law enforcement professionals
Develop standardized playbooks for intake, seizure, and investigation workflows at the regional, state, and local levels
Launch a global advocacy initiative to make victim restitution a core success metric for crypto enforcement

“We’re building the connective tissue between victims, investigators, prosecutors, and tools,” said West. “This alliance gives us global reach and tangible power to support the boots on the ground.”

“Early intervention works,” said Larkin. “If we empower local agencies with the right playbook and tools, we can disrupt billion-dollar networks - before the funds vanish.”

Asset Reality, trusted by the Federal, State & Local agencies and regulators around the world, will anchor the technical and custodial infrastructure. Operation Shamrock will drive education, advocacy, and community outreach across the U.S. and globally.

“This is what a 21st-century crime-fighting model looks like - distributed, data-driven, and collaborative,” said West. “We can’t wait any longer.”

For more information, please contact: press@assetreality.com

About Asset Reality Limited

Asset Reality is the seized asset company that builds modern solutions for more effective asset recovery. As the first company in the world to offer a complete solution for both physical and virtual assets, we make it easier to seize assets. Asset Reality’s software replaces outdated and ineffective legacy infrastructures with a solution built to optimize the seizure, management and disposal of physical and virtual assets.

For more information about Asset Reality, visit www.assetreality.com

About Operation Shamrock

Operation Shamrock exists to educate the public, equip first responders, and mobilize institutional action to disrupt the scam industry. Transnational organized crime syndicates are stealing hundreds of billions of dollars, household by household, using human trafficking and psychological exploitation.

The Crypto Coalition, a group of more than 2,400 active law-enforcement professionals, works to investigate these crimes and stop one of the most destructive crime ecosystems in modern history. Learn more at www.operationshamrock.org.

This item of content is a press release from a third party provider who make no warranties or representations in connection with this content and therefore PA can make no warranties in respect of its use.

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