The United States moves to the Black List Group Huione on money laundering relationships

The Trump administration determined a Cambodian financial group as the money laundering process on Thursday, as it took the first step to cut off its arrival to the American financial system.

The Treasury said that since August 2021, the company, the HUIONE Group, and its subsidiaries, washed $ 4 billion to criminals, including infiltrators in North Korea and deceitful in Southeast Asia.

The Treasury said in a detailed report of the company’s operations: “The Huione Group works as an important node for the ecosystems for money laundering,” the Treasury said in a detailed report of the company.

A The New York Times investigation in March I found that the Huione Group of Companies was At the heart of the global money laundering network. Online fraudsters, who deceive victims with fake investments or other plans, depend on HUIONE and their subsidiaries to transfer money abroad while evading law enforcement authorities and anti -washing banks.

If they come into effect, the proposed rules of the Treasury will prevent American banks from opening or maintaining the accounts of Huione companies. The rules will also require financial institutions to examine transactions that may be linked to the Cambodian company.

At present, HUIONE companies do not have a direct banking relationship with American financial institutions, the treasury said.

HUIONE is famous for its QR code, which customers use to push bills in hotels, restaurants and supermarkets. But companies affiliated with other passengers are editing operations in exchange for money laundering, and found the Times. A company hosts a bazaar on the Internet, consisting of thousands of chat groups connecting Telegram, which links the fraudsters to money engines. Another participates directly in money laundering.

The cousin of the Prime Minister in Cambodia, Hun, is the director of Hayun Company.

The Treasury said that HUIONE and its subsidiaries had washed nearly $ 40 million from the theft made by the North Korean infiltrators, and the Lazaros Group in particular. The Lazaros group is supported by the North Korean government and its parents It was linked to the main breakthroughs And other online crimes.

The Blockchain Elliptic Analysis Company has previously described the Internet as the largest unlawful internet market in the world and connected it to $ 26.8 billion in coded currency transactions since 2021.

“I think this will be a big blow to the Huione group,” said Tom Robinson, one of the founders of Al -Alailji. “It mainly cuts them off from the American financial system.”

However, many public channels of the bazaar remained in May, although Telegram said it had closed a number of it.

Last year, the bazaar released its own encoded currency, linked to the US dollar, who said it would not undergo orders to freeze law enforcement agencies. The Treasury described this as an “unusual step” designed to avoid the rules of anti -money laundering.

The Treasury said that the parent company and its subsidiaries are working as “one and a soul”, and that the group has taken “meaningless steps” to address money laundering on its platforms.

In March, the National Bank of Cambodia, which organizes financial institutions, said that the payment company’s license was not renewed to work in Cambodia. The company responded by announcing plans to register in Japan and Canada.

The Treasury requested comments on its proposed rules for 30 days after publishing it in the federal registry.

Joy Dong The reports contributed.