In brief
- Huione Group has closed its Phnom Penh branches following actions brought by the U.S. and UK cutting it out of the international banking system in October.
- The sanctioned conglomerate’s marketplace and escrow service have been tied to billions of dollars in illicit transactions, according to U.S. and UK authorities.
- Analysts say intensified enforcement, including FinCEN’s designation, may represent a decisive shift in the region’s illicit finance ecosystem.
Branches of the sanctioned Cambodian conglomerate Huione Group’s Huione Pay banking services have closed their doors and halted cash withdrawals, with photos circulating on social media showing queues forming outside locked doors on Monday.
The freeze follows the U.S. and UK cutting Huione off from the international banking system in October, part of a broader effort to disrupt Cambodia’s $19 billion-a-year industrialized scam economy. Huione has been described as “critical infrastructure” for those networks.
U.S. Treasury officials say at least $4 billion moved through Huione’s escrow services since 2021, although other estimates put the number as “at least” $11 billion. Funds linked to North Korea’s Lazarus Group, major scam compounds, and the $235 million WazirX hack were among the flows.
“Pressure has been building for months—from Cambodia’s revocation of its banking licence to FinCEN’s move to identify Huione as a primary money laundering concern,” Angela Ang, Head of Policy and Strategic Partnerships, APAC at TRM Labs told Decrypt.
“Huione may have been cavalier at first, but the impact has clearly caught up. This latest development signals that FinCEN’s special measures could be the final nail in the coffin.”
What is Huione?
Founded around 2014 and counting Hun To—cousin of Prime Minister Hun Manet—among its board members, the Huione Group offers a range of financial services in Cambodia targeting primarily Chinese-speaking users. Its services span payments, bill settlement and financial transfers.
It initially garnered attention because of its subsidiary, Huione Guarantee (later known as Haowang Guarantee), an escrow service provided by the company for its website and Telegram marketplace, which connected sellers and vendors interested in money laundering services, scam website templates and even items like tasers.
Cambodia has become a hub for industrial-scale online scamming, with the UN estimating in 2023 that more than 100,000 people work inside scam compounds, some under coercion. Investigators say Huione’s financial rails have helped sustain those operations.
Attempts to take action against it ramped up this year. Cambodia’s financial regulator revoked Huione Pay’s licence in March, citing compliance violations. Huione dismissed the action, saying its operations no longer required a banking licence and blaming unnamed adversaries.
FinCEN escalated matters on May 1, naming Huione a primary money laundering concern. That same month, Humanity Research Consultancy identified the conglomerate as a key component of Cambodia’s scam economy, which it estimates is valued at 60% of national GDP.
In October, the U.S., alongside the UK, finalized an action to cut the Huione Group out of the U.S. financial system. “For years, Huione Group has laundered proceeds of virtual currency scams and heists on behalf of malicious cyber actors,” said the U.S. Treasury in a statement at the time.
But despite the pressure, Huione has proved resilient. Alternative guarantee services have emerged as its Telegram channels went offline, with Tudou Guarantee, 30% owned by Huione, seeing rapid growth.
The group has also launched USDH, a dollar‑backed stablecoin on Tron and Xone. The latter is a blockchain previously known as Huione Chain, backed by the group and marketed as “censorship‑resistant.”
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