U.S. National Statement

UN Convention against Cybercrime Signing Ceremony

Hanoi, Vietnam

October 25, 2025

(~1300 words; ~ 8-10 minutes)

• We thank Vietnam for hosting this event. As we celebrate our 30th anniversary of bilateral relations and our second year as Comprehensive Strategic Partners, we value the growing strength of our relationship, particularly with our law enforcement and security partners.

• As this group gathers to strengthen international law enforcement cooperation against cybercrime, we must reflect on what—and for whom—we are fighting for.

• In 2024 alone, the Federal Bureau of Investigation received over 55,000 reports of sextortion, with financial losses exceeding $33.5 million.

• Also in 2024, Americans lost over $10 billion to online scam operations run by Chinese criminal organizations across Southeast Asia. These organizations exploit thousands of victims of human trafficking – forcing them to facilitate these scams.

• Consider the story of a bright 17-year-old from California with his whole life ahead of him. One night, he fell victim to sextortion, and by morning, his parents found him dead, driven to suicide by a cybercriminal.

• In April, Ivorian law enforcement arrested the minor’s predator and other members of the sextortion network with cooperation from the FBI and Meta.

• The United States will stop at nothing to target, prosecute, disrupt, and dismantle these networks. We will will always pursue justice against these sick criminals.

• However, we need strong cooperation with our law enforcement counterparts in other countries.

• To that end, we have a good news story in our partnership with Vietnam to root out child sexual abuse material. In August, Ministry of Public Security officers testified at a U.S. federal trial in Seattle, leading to the conviction of a U.S. citizen for producing child sexual abuse material involving children kidnapped and sexually abused by a co-conspirator in Vietnam.  This partnership is a model for international law enforcement cooperation to protect our communities.

• But more needs to be done around the world.

• We urge our counterpart governments to intensify investigations and exercise sustained political will to disrupt these scam operations, dismantle their infrastructure, protect victims of human trafficking, and recover proceeds of cybercrime to deprive criminals of their ill-gotten gains.

• The locations of these scam operations are known. Their ties to corrupt officials are known.  It is time for governments to act decisively, not stand idly by.  And we will remain vigilant to this threat as these groups reconstitute and attempt to rebuild.

• Last week, we sanctioned 146 targets within the Prince Group transnational criminal organization for facilitating online scams in Southeast Asia’s Mekong sub-region that defrauded Americans. This action follows sanctions in September on nine targets in Burma and 10 targets in Cambodia for similar online scam operations.

• The FBI and DOJ also conducted the largest forfeiture action in its history, seizing $15 billion in bitcoin and charging Prince Holding Group Chairman Chen Zhu with wire fraud and money laundering for directing Prince Group’s operations of scam compounds in Cambodia.

• The United States is ending impunity for cybercriminals.

• In May, President Trump signed the TAKE IT DOWN Act, criminalizing the publication of nonconsensual intimate imagery, including digitally altered “deepfakes,” and requiring by May 2026 that platforms have a process to swiftly remove images when requested by a victim. This legislation demonstrates U.S. leadership and innovation to keep Americans safe online and our proactive partnership with the private sector to do so.

• Since January 20, the U.S. Department of Justice has prosecuted ransomware attackers who targeted critical infrastructure and victimized hundreds of companies, recovered millions in ransomware payments and North Korean crypto proceeds through innovative use of forfeiture laws, and dismantled major malware operations and cybercrime marketplaces used by both criminal groups and nation-state actors to harm Americans.

• The United States continues to review and consider the UN Convention against Cybercrime. We note it is meant to provide law enforcement with critical tools, including expanded extradition mechanisms and enhanced opportunities to secure evidence from overseas jurisdictions.

• We also note it is meant to strengthen international cooperation to combat the nonconsensual dissemination of intimate images and online child sexual exploitation, including grooming, child sexual abuse material, and sextortion.

• As we engage in treaty-related discussions, we will not sit back and watch China, Russia, and others try to suppress freedom of expression or obtain data in a manner inconsistent with the obligations in the treaty. We will strongly condemn any efforts to misinterpret or seek to misuse the treaty as cover to unlawfully target U.S. citizens and businesses.

• The United States is also vehemently opposed to the inclusion of the word, “gender.” Efforts to eradicate biological reality in this text distract from the core purpose of the treaty – combating cybercrime.  We also recognize that Article 63.3 allows for states to declare that they are not bound by Article 63.2, which permits a state party to refer a dispute to the International Court of Justice.

• Every year, over 300 million children worldwide are exploited or abused online. The sextortion ring that targeted the boy from California also preyed on thousands of victims across the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, France, Spain, and Italy.  While we talk, they hunt for more vulnerable victims.  It is time for less talking and more doing.

• As the First Lady of the United States announced at the General Assembly High-Level Week in September, “the moment is now” to foster a future together where children can flourish in the digital era. We urge your leaders to join her Global Coalition, “Fostering the Future Together.”

• Let us act boldly. Let us act swiftly.  And let us act now.