The U.S. Treasury has blacklisted Cambodia’s Huione Group, accusing it of laundering over $4 billion in cybercrime-linked funds. The Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) identified Huione’s connections with North Korean hackers, cryptocurrency scams, and internet fraud syndicates.
Other parties, including Google, Elliptic, and Cambodian authorities, confirmed Huione’s involvement in the alleged crimes. The US Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) designated Huione Group as a Primary Money Laundering Concern under Section 311 of the USA PATRIOT Act. The move allows American financial institutions to prohibit holding direct accounts with Huione Group or its subsidiaries, isolating them from the American financial system.
Conduits and Control Failures
As early as November 22, the FinCEN investigation purportedly pinpointed particular entities of Huione Group’s structure as principal conduits of the alleged laundering activities. Those were Huione Pay PLC, Huione Crypto, and Haowang Guarantee. Such corporations are considered by authorities as crypto-captive criminal enterprises provided with horrendous internal control systems and a lack of internal KYC as critical success factors.
As noted by FinCEN Director Andrea Gacki on the findings: “Huobi has systematically absent anti-money laundering controls on the company’s platforms. Huione’s systems permit the transfer of hundreds of billions of dollars of illicit funds, which fuels cyber scams, compromising global financial stability.” She remarks on their lack of control and important financial stability around the world.
Criminal Involvement and Laundered Money
It is alleged that Huione’s platforms were connected with cybercriminal activities between August 2021 and January 2025. According to suspicious account data from FinCEN, roughly $4 billion was processed through these accounts. One source makes an effort to claim $37 million was tied to North Korean cyber heists, $36 million was linked to crypto investment scams, and over $300 million was processed from various online fraud operations. These estimates reflect a myriad of fraudulent activities purportedly aided by Huione’s platforms.
Recognized Gaps and US Insight
It has been reported that Huione purportedly admitted to a lack of “significant improvements” to their internal compliance procedures. This was said to be an admission made particularly after the group was discovered to be facilitating the flow of funds originating from DPRK-linked cyber operations. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent provided some context as to what these platforms might mean on a broader scale. Bessent quote, “The system has turned into the preferred location where criminal organizations conduct illegal operations involving billions of stolen money from American citizens.” His statement encapsulates the perception of the U.S. government that such entities put the citizens in immediate danger and undermine the whole financial system.
Actions Taken By Other Parties
Other parties had already taken steps prior to US sanctions that responded to Huione’s purported activities. The National Bank of Cambodia formally acted in January 2025 by revoking Huione Pay’s operating license, which demonstrates local regulatory activity. Also, in July 2024, tech giant Google allegedly took action by delisting Haowang Guarantee from their app marketplace. They reported this after Elliptic, a blockchain analytics firm, purportedly traced its networks to nefarious activity, which emphasizes the role of private firms in detecting dubious operations.
Huione’s Reaction and Potential Concerns Moving Forward
Regardless of the mounting efforts from various organizations and firms, Huione Group, to this day, refuses to make headway regarding the media blackout, garnering especially a lack of public commentary towards the claims made and the U.S. blacklisting. Blockading Huione Group also threatens to create a ripple effect on any and all crypto exchanges as well as trading sites, operating loosely with the group and dealing even in indirect transactions.
The FinCEN sanction on the company is seen by the source as an intent behind a will to bear a thrust against unregulated intermediaries of crypto assets, more so in Southeast Asia due to regulatory attention after the SEC’s exogenous actions of dropping charges against Uniswap and other big crypto players. While we still await from FinCEN on whether crypto transactions are to be regulated, the recently scrutinized treasury payment policy on payments above $200 propels the narrative of increasing restrictions on the flows of digital assets.
