TL;DR:
- The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) seized a cloud account that supported the infrastructure of Huione Group, identified as one of the world’s most prolific criminal marketplaces.
- The account operated Huione Guarantee, a Telegram marketplace that brokered stolen data, laundering services, and tools for scams across Southeast Asia.
- FinCEN extended its prohibition to successor H-Pay Service PLC to prevent the group from circumventing existing restrictions within the U.S. financial system.
The United States Department of Justice announced the seizure of a cloud computing account used by subsidiaries of Huione Group, a Cambodia-based conglomerate accused of laundering billions of dollars derived from crypto fraud and cybercrime scams. According to prosecutors, the account hosted the backend infrastructure that allowed criminals to move and conceal funds before introducing them into the banking system undetected.
“Today’s seizure strikes a blow against one of the world’s most prolific criminal marketplaces,” declared Acting Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Department’s Criminal Division. The account functioned as “the technological backbone that allowed billions in fraudulent proceeds to be transferred, moved, and concealed,” he stated, much of it “stolen through scam centers in Southeast Asia.”
Huione Guarantee: The Marketplace That Surpassed Silk Road
According to court documents, the account supported the operation of Huione Guarantee, also known as Haowang Guarantee, a Telegram marketplace where stolen card data and identities, money laundering services, and tools for romance and investment scams were traded. The platform also managed escrow services for criminals, including money launderers, to operate with cryptocurrencies. Blockchain analysts had catalogued it as the largest illicit online marketplace in history, surpassing dark web predecessors such as Silk Road. Telegram removed its channels in May 2025, although successor marketplaces emerged rapidly.
The seizure is the latest blow in a series of measures against Huione that intensified over the past year. Last October, the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, FinCEN, issued a rule that cut the group off from the U.S. financial system by designating it a “primary money laundering concern.” On Tuesday, FinCEN extended that rule to successor H-Pay Service PLC to prevent the group from evading the restriction.
The Pressure From Authorities Keeps Mounting
The case was investigated by the FBI field office in San Francisco and IRS Criminal Investigation, under the framework of Operation Riptide, an FBI campaign targeting the infrastructure behind online fraud. Blockchain analytics firms Chainalysis and Elliptic, along with Google‘s cybercrime team, collaborated in the investigation.
Americans reported more than $7.2 billion in losses from cryptocurrency fraud to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center in 2025 alone, part of more than $20 billion in total cybercrime losses — an increase of 26% compared to the previous year.
Huione has demonstrated its ability to reorganize, launching its own stablecoin, USDH, and shifting its activity across different platforms as authorities continue to apply pressure.
