Huione Group

Huione Group is a Cambodian financial conglomerate,[1] with headquarters in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.[2] Some of their products and subsidiaries include Huione Pay (banking),[1] Huione Guarantee (an escrow and deposit service sometimes used as a grey market),[3] and Huione Crypto (a cryptocurrency exchange).[3] They are linked to Cambodia's ruling family, the Hun family (for example Hun Manet).[4] The Cambodian Prime Minister's Cousin Hun To is a major shareholder and director of Huione Pay.[5]

In July 2024, blockchain analytics firm Elliptic linked Huione Guarantee to the sale of stolen data and money laundering services used by the scam industry,[6] for example pig butchering scams.[3][4][2] In March 2025, the National Bank of Cambodia revoked Huione Pay's banking license.[1] In May 2025, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) found Huione Group to be a financial institution of primary money laundering concern and proposed to sever its access to the U.S. financial system.[7] Shortly afterwards, Telegram deleted thousands of channels used by Huione Guarantee and banned several accounts that had operated the marketplace.[8] It had grown to become the largest criminal marketplace of all time, with transactions totalling more than $27 billion.[9]

References

  1. ^ a b c "Exclusive: World's 'largest online black market' loses banking license". Radio Free Asia. Archived from the original on 2025-03-18. Retrieved 2025-03-23.
  2. ^ a b Gebrekidan, Selam; Dong, Joy (2025-03-23). "Takeaways From Our Money Laundering Investigation". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 23 March 2025. Retrieved 2025-03-23.
  3. ^ a b c Burgess, Matt. "The 'Largest Illicit Online Marketplace' Ever Is Growing at an Alarming Rate, Report Says". Wired.com. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 2025-03-23.
  4. ^ a b Greenberg, Andy. "The $11 Billion Marketplace Enabling the Crypto Scam Economy". Wired.com. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 2025-03-23.
  5. ^ Wilson, Tom (Jul 15, 2024). "Exclusive: North Korean hackers sent stolen crypto to wallet used by Asian payment firm". Reuters.
  6. ^ "Huione Guarantee: The multi-billion dollar marketplace used by online scammers". Elliptic. Retrieved Jul 9, 2024.
  7. ^ "FinCEN Finds Cambodia-Based Huione Group to be of Primary Money Laundering Concern, Proposes a Rule to Combat Cyber Scams and Heists". FinCEN website. Retrieved May 1, 2025.
  8. ^ Greenberg, Andy (May 14, 2025). "The Internet's Biggest-Ever Black Market Just Shut Down Amid a Telegram Purge".
  9. ^ "Elliptic data leads to the shutdown of the two largest online criminal marketplaces of all time". Elliptic. Retrieved May 14, 2025.
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