FinCEN Moves to Ban Cambodia’s Huione Group For Money Laundering

On May 1, 2025, the U.S Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) identified Cambodia-based Huione Group as a primary hub of money laundering.

The agency suggested removing the group’s access to the U.S. banking system and prohibiting U.S. companies from opening or keeping correspondent banking accounts for or on the part of Huione.

According to US Treasury investigations, the Huione Group is laundering ill-gotten funds via convertible virtual currency (CVC) investment scams, Cyber heists, and other types of CVC-related scams.

As per the FinCEN’s investigation, the Huione Group laundered at least $4 billion in illegal income between August 2021 and January 2025.

From that $4 billion, Huione Group is found to have laundered at least $37 million in CVC from DPRK cyber heists, at least $36 million from CVC investment frauds, and $300 million from various cyber scams. Related News:

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As per the statement issued by the FinCEN, the Group has established an ecosystem of various companies, each of which has a distinct function in its extensive money laundering operations.

These companies include:

1. Huione Crypto, a virtual assets service provider (VASP)
2. Huione Pay PLC, the payment services provider
3. Haowang Guarantee, an online marketplace known for selling illegal products and services

The Huione network offers a range of financial services, including a recently launched stablecoin, payment services in fiat currency and CVC, which are frequently used for money laundering, and an online marketplace that sells things essential to committing cyber fraud.

The US dollar-pegged stablecoin or US Dollar Huione (USDH) developed by the conglomerate aids in money laundering and cannot be blocked according to FinCEN.

The FinCEN investigation revealed that the Huione Group’s anti-money laundering/know your customer (AML/KYC) rules and procedures are either nonexistent or inefficient, which contributed to the dangers associated with the group’s affiliation with criminal actors and transactions connected to illegal practices.

This shortcoming was also acknowledged by Huione Group, which discovered that its KYC procedures were woefully inadequate, even neglecting to notice that one of its companies had received money indirectly from a DPRK heist.

Despite publicly available data showing how TCOs used the company’s multiple services for fraudulent objectives, none of the three Huione Group companies had implemented AML/KYC policies.

The National Bank of Cambodia has already gone after Huione, revoking the company’s local banking license in March 2025. According to the central bank, payment businesses are not permitted to engage in or trade digital assets in the country.

In January, Google also deleted the Telegram-based service Huione Guarantee after Elliptic, a blockchain analytics company, exposed its illegal ties.

The FinCEN’s proposed regulation falls under Section 311 of the Patriot Act, which allows the Treasury Secretary a number of options for dealing with specific money laundering and terrorist financing challenges.

The proposal classifies Huione as being “a primary money laundering concern.”