As a result of an investigation by the FBI San Diego Field Office, federal authorities have seized and shut down a web domain used to defraud Americans through cryptocurrency investment fraud scams, officials announced Tuesday.

More than 400 San Diegans were among the victims of the Southeast Asia-based criminal enterprise, suffering an estimated cumulative loss of roughly $90 million in the 2024 fiscal year, according to the FBI.

However, federal investigators said they believe that figure to be a fraction of the total scope of losses, given that many victims do not report their losses to law enforcement.

The shuttered web domain, tickmilleas.com, had been used by scammers based at a compound called Tai Chang in the village of Kyaukhat, Myanmar, the FBI reported.

The seizure of the online site occurred less than three weeks after the announcement of the formation of the Scam Center Strike Force and the seizure of two other domains also used by the same criminals, federal officials said.

According to an affidavit filed in the case, Tai Chang is affiliated with the Burmese armed group Democratic Karen Benevolent Army and Trans Asia International Holding Group Thailand Company Limited.

Both entities were designated by the U.S. Department of the Treasury as “specially designated nationals” on Nov. 12 for their alleged links to Chinese organized crime and development of scam centers in Southeast Asia.

According to federal authorities, the tickmilleas.com domain was disguised as a legitimate investment platform to trick people into depositing funds.

Victims of the scams — a type that fraudsters refer to as “pig butchering” — reported to the FBI that tickmilleas.com showed lucrative supposed returns on what they believed to be their investments and displayed purported deposits made by scammers to the victims’ “accounts.”

According to the affidavit, tickmilleas.com directed users to download mobile applications from Google Play and Apple’s App Store. The FBI notified those firms of the fraudulent apps, and they have voluntarily removed several of them from their stores.

The Scam Center Strike Force also worked with Meta to identify accounts associated with the Tai Chang compound, the FBI reported. Meta voluntarily removed about 2,000 of them as part of the collaborative effort, officials said.

Among the results of the investigation was the FBI’s discovery that Tai Chang was targeting a San Diegan, whom authorities were able to warn about the scheme before the targeted person lost any money, according to federal authorities.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals announced Monday that an 11-judge panel will hear a San Diego case challenging a voter-approved California law that requires a background check for nearly all purchases of firearm ammunition.

A San Diego federal judge has twice found that the law is unconstitutional, ruling that it infringes on the Second Amendment rights of Californians, and a three-judge panel from the 9th Circuit affirmed that ruling in a 2-1 opinion in July.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta subsequently petitioned the 9th Circuit to rehear the case en banc, and on Monday the 9th Circuit announced that a majority of active judges had voted to have the case reheard by a larger 11-judge en banc panel.

In addition to requiring background checks for most ammunition purchases, the law in question also bans Californians from bringing home ammunition that they purchase out of state.

While Bonta has argued the law was passed by voters in response to mass shootings and is intended to ensure ammunition is kept out of the hands of people not legally allowed to purchase it, the individuals and Second Amendment rights groups who challenged the law in San Diego federal court argued that it illegally infringes on their constitutional right to keep and bear arms.

Monday’s announcement that the case will be heard en banc was the latest twist in a case that was filed in 2018.

San Diego-based U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez first struck down the law as unconstitutional in 2020. California appealed that ruling to the 9th Circuit, but in 2022, before the 9th Circuit had ruled on that appeal, the U.S. Supreme Court issued an opinion in a New York gun case that upended Second Amendment case law.

After that Supreme Court ruling, which holds that modern gun laws must be “consistent with the nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation,” the 9th Circuit sent the case back to Benitez to be relitigated under the high court’s new framework.

That’s how Benitez came to rule last year, for a second time, that the law was unconstitutional. “A sweeping background check requirement imposed every time a citizen needs to buy ammunition is an outlier that our ancestors would have never accepted for a citizen,” Benitez wrote in part.

California again appealed the ruling, then asked for the larger 9th Circuit hearing after the three-judge panel sided 2-1 with Benitez in July.

That opinion by the three-judge panel is now vacated, according to an order issued Monday by 9th Circuit Chief Judge Mary Murguia. It’s not yet known which 11 judges will hear the case, but oral arguments will be held in March.

A man who brought an 18-year-old woman to San Diego for the purpose of sexually trafficking her was sentenced Monday to 10 years in prison.

Darrell Davis, 22, of Sacramento, brought the victim to San Diego so she could earn money for him as a prostitute and posted sex advertisements online that featured the victim, according to prosecutors.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office said the victim originally met Davis when she was 17.

She later was working for him six days a week, and up to 10 to 14 hours per day and the money she earned went to Davis, who tracked the victim electronically through a tracking app, prosecutors said.

A sentencing memorandum filed by federal prosecutors states the woman also reported being physically abused by Davis, including during one occasion in which “she was making efforts to get away from Mr. Davis.”

Another time, she gave him $500 as a “partial exit fee” so she could stop working as a prostitute and return home, the memorandum states.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office said the woman contacted police in January 2023 and Davis was arrested the following day outside a Chula Vista hotel. Upon his arrest, a ledger was discovered that indicated the victim’s prostitution earnings, while another ledger showed earnings from two other women who worked for Davis, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Davis pleaded guilty to a federal count of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking.