Online marketplace Huione Guarantee has facilitated at least $11 billion worth of transactions to cryptocurrency fraudsters in Southeast Asia, according to blockchain analytics firm Elliptic.
Huione operates like a darknet marketplace, facilitating cyber fraud in Southeast Asia.The marketplace operates through thousands of instant messaging app channels, each run by a different merchant, and primarily uses the USDT stablecoin for payments. report The company stated:
“If blockchain analysts choose to make their findings public without directly engaging with us, it limits our ability to act quickly to freeze illegal activity related to our stablecoin,” a Tether spokesperson said. Decryption.This creates a bystander effect, where individuals observe wrongdoing but choose to document it for social media engagement and reputational gain.”
Huion is run by the Huion Group, a conglomerate with ties to Cambodia’s ruling Hun clan, whose illegal activities extend beyond the market: another company, Huion International Payments, is allegedly involved in laundering fraudulent proceeds globally.
Elliptic has labeled hundreds of crypto addresses linked to Huione’s activity to help exchanges and law enforcement fight such fraudulent activity.
Huion Group, a subsidiary of Cambodian conglomerate Huion Group, has been identified as the hub of a “pig slaughter” scam, the company said.
These scams involve fraudsters building online relationships with their victims, convincing them to invest, and then siphoning their funds. Other scams include Ponzi schemes, identity theft, and sex torturing, according to the blockchain analytics firm.
Elliptic’s investigation also found that Huione engaged in transactions involving money laundering services, technology and data essential to perpetrating fraud.
One of the directors of the group’s subsidiary, Huong Pay, is said to be Hun Tho, a cousin of Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Manet. Heroin trafficking The case has been targeted by Australian authorities as a money laundering offence and has also been linked to Chinese organised crime.
A spokesman for the Cambodian Prime Minister’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The report also highlights serious human rights violations linked to their activities.
Located primarily in Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia, the fraud facilities resemble prisons where trafficked workers from China, Vietnam and the Philippines are forced to commit fraud under harsh conditions.
The report said these workers were often subjected to torture, leading some to commit suicide.
Elliptic found that Huion had ads for devices used to control and punish workers, including electric batons and electronic shackles.
Elliptic said the actual volume of illicit transactions is likely even higher due to merchant turnover and incomplete data on cryptocurrency wallets.
Update 10:29 ET: Added comment from a Tether spokesperson.