MEDIA ADVISORY: Subcommittee Chairmen Guest, Ogles Announce Hearing on Cybercrime, Scams, and Digital Exploitation by Transnational Criminal Networks

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Today, Subcommittee on Border Security and Enforcement Chairman Michael Guest (R-MS) and Subcommittee on Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection Chairman Andy Ogles (R-TN) announced a joint hearing for Tuesday, April 21, to examine the growing threat posed by transnational criminal organizations exploiting digital technologies, including cryptocurrency, online platforms, artificial intelligence (AI), and global financial networks, to target American citizens, businesses, and critical infrastructure.

Cyber-enabled financial crimes have become major streams of revenue for criminal actors. In many cases, digital fraud schemes rely on forced labor and human trafficking victims and overlap with traditional organized crime activities. The hearing will also examine how cartels, including recently designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations, increasingly rely on transnational financial facilitators, including PRC-linked criminal networks, to launder illicit proceeds, move money across borders, and sustain narcotics trafficking, fraud, and other criminal enterprises. The hearing will highlight the scope of these threats and explore policy solutions to strengthen enforcement, disrupt criminal networks, and protect Americans from the harms of digital exploitation.

"Transnational organized crime groups are leveraging digital technologies to operate beyond our physical borders and across our cyber borders. Today's scammers are highly sophisticated and relentlessly effective, with a long list of tailored schemes they can use to defraud innocent Americans," Subcommittee Chairman Guest said. "We cannot allow these criminal networks to use American dollars to enable their illicit activities--from flooding our communities with deadly, illicit narcotics to engaging in human trafficking. This hearing is about defending the sovereignty of our borders, safeguarding our financial systems, and fulfilling our moral obligation to protect Americans."

"Drug cartels and other international criminal networks are weaponizing AI and other advanced technology to steal Americans' livelihoods and fund their billion-dollar drug trafficking operations. Too many Americans have been the victims of ransomware attacks, crypto scams, and other digital fraud schemes. The United States must crush these actors," Subcommittee Chairman Ogles said. "Cartels increasingly rely on cryptocurrency and other digital tools to launder money; their operations are intersecting with criminal and financial networks linked to Communist China. I look forward to hearing more from our private-sector witnesses about how we can work together to cut off the financial flows that sustain these criminals' deadly enterprises."

DETAILS:

What: A joint hearing by the Subcommittee on Border Security and Enforcement and the Subcommittee on Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection entitled, "Online Scams, Crypto Fraud, and Digital Extortion: An Examination of How Transnational Criminal Networks Target Americans."

When: Tuesday, April 21, 2026, at 10:00 a.m. EDT

Where: 310 Cannon House Office Building

WITNESSES:

Cynthia Kaiser
Senior Vice President, Halcyon Ransomware Research Center

Ari Redbord
Global Head of Policy, TRM Labs

Joshua Bercu
Senior Vice President, Policy, USTelecom - The Broadband Association

Megan Stifel
Chief Strategy Officer, Institute for Security and Technology

Witness testimony will be added here. The hearing will be livestreamed on YouTube and will be open to the public and press. Press must be congressionally credentialed and should RSVP in advance.

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