Key takeaways
- OFAC sanctioned 26 entities linked to the Prince group, subsequently blocking Huione from US financial markets.
- Chainalysis reported that Huione Garantie processed $70 billion in crypto, imposing stricter P2P market rules.
- After 5 years of activity, the FBI seized Huione’s cloud systems to dismantle global crypto scam markets.
US Treasury Hits Huione Group’s Crypto Money Laundering Cloud Infrastructure
The Trump administration is stepping up efforts to combat groups that target Americans and those that facilitate the laundering of the proceeds of these operations.
The U.S. Treasury announced it has taken action against Huione Group, a Cambodia-based financial services conglomerate that served as a facilitator for the Prince Group, a transnational criminal organization (TCO) that operates compounds in Asia targeting Americans with romance scams known as pig butchering operations.
On Tuesday, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) named nine individuals and 26 entities linked to the Prince Group, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) amending an earlier rule to include H-Pay Service and any successor entities, which ordered “a prohibition on covered financial institutions from opening or maintaining a correspondent account for or on behalf of the Huione Group in order to protect against money laundering risks to the U.S. financial system posed by the Huione Group.
“The Trump Administration is united in its efforts to dismantle these foreign criminal enterprises, and Treasury will continue to use its tools to disrupt the networks behind this egregious fraud and protect Americans. » Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said.
Additionally, the FBI seized the infrastructure Huione used to scam Americans. Chainalysis, a blockchain auditing and security firm that collaborated on this operation, estimated that Huione Garantie, a peer-to-peer marketplace operated by the Huione Group, processed more than $70 billion in crypto over the past 5 years, offering illicit services to users and providing a money laundering front for the Prince Group.
Chainalysis pointed out that instead of targeting traditional banking channels, this time the seizure went deeper, with the Department of Justice taking control of the cloud computing accounts that hosted and supported Huione’s backend systems.
“The takedown of Huione shows what is possible when law enforcement and blockchain intelligence work together. Chainalysis is proud to have contributed to this investigation. Criminal networks are adapting, and so are we.” concludes the firm.
