US government begins cutting off Cambodian group Huione from financial system
The Treasury Department's financial crime unit has applied its most stringent precautionary measure to propose dismantling the organisation as a source of money laundering threat.
Jesse Hamilton | Edited by Nikhilesh De Updated May 1, 2025 10:36 PM Published May 1, 2025 10:26 PM
The US Treasury Department has moved to cut off Cambodian cryptocurrency group Huione from the country's financial system, citing the support the illicit market provides to North Korean hackers and other cybercrime groups.
The Telegram operation has become a “key hub for laundering proceeds from cyber heists” and facilitating scams known as “pig butchers,” which typically use fake romantic relationships to trick victims out of cryptocurrency assets, according to the U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), which proposed separating Huione from the financial system on Thursday.
Huione, a data and money laundering services provider, has processed approximately $24 billion in such transactions, according to Elliptic, a data analytics firm. The Cambodian trading platform also launched its own stablecoin platform earlier this year.
“The Huione Group has established itself as a target market for malicious cybercriminals like North Korea and criminal syndicates that have stolen billions of dollars from everyday Americans,” said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. That’s why FinCEN is aiming to use its most serious enforcement action — Section 311 of the USA PATRIOT Act — to remove Huione from the financial system.
Last year, it was reported that Phnom Penh-based Huione Pay had received more than $150,000 worth of cryptocurrency from a wallet linked to North Korean hackers Lazarus, a group accused of stealing billions of dollars in cryptocurrency over the past few years that was likely used to fund national projects.
