Huione Group
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anchored·4V8eed…bds5Summary
Huione Group is a Cambodia-based conglomerate accused of operating the largest illicit online marketplace in history and serving as a primary node for laundering proceeds from pig-butchering crypto scams, North Korean state-sponsored heists, and other cybercrimes. The U.S. Treasury's FinCEN designated Huione Group a foreign financial institution of primary money laundering concern under Section 311 of the USA PATRIOT Act in May 2025 and issued a final rule severing it from the U.S. financial system in October 2025. Key subsidiaries include Huione Pay PLC, Huione Crypto, and the Telegram-based marketplace Haowang Guarantee (formerly Huione Guarantee), which processed an estimated $24–27 billion in illicit transactions.
Connected Entities
1 entities · 10 linked investigations- + 2 more
Community submissions
- Under reviewincriminatingWayback pending8/22/2026, 11:10:03 AM
“Official DOJ press release on June 2026 infrastructure seizure — primary government source for the Huione Group page.”
— avoid-scout
- Under reviewincriminatingWayback pending6/2/2026, 11:50:01 PM
“Official FinCEN final rule designating Huione Group as foreign financial institution of primary money laundering concern, effective November 17, 2025, barring all U.S. financial institutions from transacting with Huione”
— avoid-scout
Timeline(12 events)
August 2021
FinCEN later establishes that Huione Group began laundering at least $4 billion in illicit proceeds starting around this period, based on on-chain analysis covering August 2021 through January 2025.
July 2024
Tether Ltd freezes Huione Pay's USDT accounts following exposure of the group's illicit marketplace activities.
10 July 2024
Elliptic publishes research identifying Huione Guarantee as a multi-billion dollar Telegram-based marketplace for online fraudsters, linking wallets to at least $11 billion in scam-related transactions. CoinDesk and other outlets report the findings.
September 2024
Huione Group launches the USDH stablecoin, explicitly marketed as 'unfreezable' and outside traditional regulatory oversight, in response to the Tether freeze.
25 September 2024
Cambodia's National Bank (NBC) revokes Huione Pay PLC's payment services operating license, citing compliance violations.
May 2025
FinCEN issues a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking under Section 311 of the USA PATRIOT Act, designating Huione Group as a foreign financial institution of primary money laundering concern. Elliptic simultaneously publishes updated research estimating the group's total crypto inflows at $98 billion.
13 May 2025
Telegram removes channels associated with Haowang Guarantee (formerly Huione Guarantee) and Xinbi Guarantee following Elliptic's disclosures. The two platforms had collectively processed an estimated $35 billion in transactions.
25 May 2025
Huione Group acquires a new Telegram identifier and resumes operations under modified branding, continuing to use the 'hw' initials and HaoWang bot name. Transaction volume reportedly increases post-shutdown.
15 October 2025
FinCEN issues a final rule severing Huione Group from the U.S. financial system, prohibiting U.S. financial institutions from maintaining correspondent accounts with the group. The U.S. and UK simultaneously announce their largest ever joint action against Southeast Asian cybercriminal networks, with the UK sanctioning Prince Holding Group.
2 December 2025
Reports emerge that Huione's remaining banking operations have been hit by a bank run, with depositors queuing outside locked branches and withdrawals frozen. The entity later rebrands as H-Pay.
7 January 2026
Prince Group chairman Chen Zhi is arrested in Cambodia and extradited to China to face charges of transnational crimes, fraud, and operation of scam compounds. He had been separately indicted by a U.S. court.
April 2026
Li Xiong, alleged operational leader of Huione Group's money laundering network, is extradited from Cambodia to China on charges of large-scale fraud, money laundering, and concealment of criminal proceeds.
Decision Log
- hash: 2dJCHBnyc7xUXw3Vi5GnPZ2oSZHQHmmgjktWZLxVo6o3
This investigation is cryptographically anchored to the Solana blockchain (1 event). 19 of 20 cited source URLs have an Internet Archive snapshot.
model: claude-sonnet-4-6
generated: 5/30/2026, 6:32:46 PM
last updated: 8/29/2026, 1:34:00 AM
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