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Stake.com Cited as DOJ Seeks $5 Million Bitcoin Seizure in SIM Swap Case
Posted on: September 15, 2025, 08:49h.
Last updated on: September 15, 2025, 09:59h.
- DOJ targets $5M bitcoin linked to SIM swap fraud
- Stolen crypto allegedly laundered through Stake.com casino accounts
- Case highlights vulnerabilities in SMS-based multifactor authentication
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) wants to seize more than $5 million in Bitcoin, which it claims is the proceeds of SIM-swapping attacks. US prosecutors allege fraudsters laundered the funds through crypto casino accounts – including those connected to Stake.com – after stealing the money from victims’ crypto wallets.
Five US residents were targeted by the scam between Oct. 29, 2022, and March 31, 2023, according to a civil forfeiture complaint. As is typical in SIM swapping scams, the fraudsters were able to persuade telecommunications companies to transfer the victims’ phone numbers to their control.
This allowed the scammers to intercept authentication codes sent to those numbers, enabling them to gain access to the victims’ crypto accounts.
Then they moved the stolen Bitcoin through multiple intermediate addresses, eventually consolidating it into a single wallet. That wallet was then used to fund an account on Stake.com and other casinos, according to the complaint.
Circular Payments
During a short period around March 20-22, 2023, there were at least 32 circular transactions: repeated deposits and withdrawals of the same Bitcoin, intended to obscure origin and ownership, per the DOJ.
By using frequent circular transactions and online casinos, attackers can make tracing difficult, because these platforms sometimes lack the regulatory transparency or AML (anti-money laundering) controls of traditional banking or financial institutions.
If the forfeiture is granted, the DOJ would be able to take legal ownership of the seized Bitcoin and potentially return proceeds to the victims. Stake.com, while named in the complaint as one casino platform through which the funds were laundered, isn’t accused of wrongdoing, but its account activity is central in the DOJ’s tracing of the stolen assets
As crypto becomes more embedded in financial systems, regulators are increasingly using civil forfeiture and blockchain analytics to recover stolen digital assets.
SIM Swapping on the Rise
Reports from law enforcement and fraud-tracking groups show that SIM-swapping attacks have grown into a persistent and global threat.
In the US, FBI data indicates the scale of the problem. In 2024, more than 1,000 complaints and nearly $26 million in losses were reported. That followed a similarly high level of cases in 2023, with almost $50 million stolen.
The UK has seen an even sharper rise, with fraud prevention service Cifas recording a 1,055% surge in unauthorized SIM swaps between 2023 and 2024.
Analysts caution that these figures may still understate the true scale of the fraud, since many victims never report their losses.
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