- Binance Supports West African Fraud Crackdown as Partners Trace Over US$11 Million
Ghanaian authorities arrested 19 suspects and identified 117 human trafficking victims in an international operation against West African scam networks supported by cryptocurrency exchange Binance and other technology companies.
The enforcement action at Sasaabi, near Accra, formed part of “Joint Disruption Week”, which resulted in 28 arrests across Ghana and Nigeria, according to the US Department of Justice. Officers seized 303 electronic devices in Ghana, while the trafficking victims were awaiting repatriation to Nigeria.
Hosted in London by Britain’s National Crime Agency, the operation brought investigators and private companies together to exchange intelligence across borders. Ghana’s participation involved the Cyber Security Authority, the Police Criminal Investigation Department and National Security.
Private-sector partners collectively identified more than US$11 million in potentially freezable funds. That figure represents assets identified for possible action, rather than a confirmed amount recovered for victims. Partners also reported removing more than 3.7 million online accounts, pages and groups.
The targeted schemes included fraudulent cryptocurrency investments, impersonation of law enforcement officers and staged online arrests used to extort payments. The discovery of trafficking victims alongside suspected fraud operators highlights the human exploitation associated with these criminal networks.
“Scammers don’t keep within borders so the response cannot stop at borders either,” said Samukele Mkhize, Compliance Head for Binance Africa, in comments reported by Financial Fortune Media.
Mkhize said sharing intelligence between exchanges, technology companies and investigators could weaken the infrastructure on which criminal networks depend.
Binance said it spends approximately US$300 million annually on compliance and employs nearly 1,500 people in compliance-related roles. It also reported processing more than 71,000 law enforcement requests in 2025.
Those figures are company disclosures and describe its broader compliance activities, rather than the results of this particular operation.
The exchange also emphasised public education, urging users to question promises of unusually high returns and demands for urgent payments tactics that exploit pressure and panic to induce victims to transfer funds.
