U.S. Treasury sanctions Burmese militia group over crypto pig butchering scams

By: bitcoin ethereum news|2025/05/07 02:45:01
0
Share
copy
The United States Department of the Treasury has imposed sanctions on the Karen National Army, a Burmese militia group, accusing it of orchestrating large-scale crypto scams alongside other offences. The sanctions were announced on May 5 in a press release from the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control. The press release revealed that the KNA has been at the center of a complex network of sophisticated digital fraud schemes, including the notorious crypto “pig butchering” scams. In these scams, victims are typically lured online through dating apps and social media, where scammers initiate prolonged, increasingly intimate conversations. Once trust is established, targets are induced to invest in bogus crypto projects controlled by the scammers. Over time, they are coaxed into committing increasingly large sums. The endgame arrives when the scammers vanish, taking the funds with them. Treasury’s press release explained that proceeds from these South East Asian crypto scams are often laundered through the Huione Group in Cambodia, which was recently designated a “primary money laundering concern” under Section 311 of the USA PATRIOT Act. Huione has been previously linked to laundering stolen crypto assets for North Korea’s Lazarus Group, and is alleged to have moved over $4 billion in illicit funds between August 2021 and January 2025. Its operations include a sprawling array of businesses such as Huione Pay, Huione Crypto, and a Telegram-based black market now rebranded as Haowang Guarantee. FinCEN also flagged the group’s USDH stablecoin, which is reportedly designed to evade law enforcement by being resistant to freezing. Source: https://crypto.news/u-s-treasury-sanctions-burmese-militia-group-over-crypto-pig-butchering-scams/

You may also like

Uniswap is trapped in an innovation dilemma

The various iterations of Uniswap are one of the sources of vitality in the DeFi market, but since 2023, Uniswap has not proposed any substantial innovations, instead adhering to traditional business explorations in application chains, Launchpads, etc., leading to a slump in token prices and market ...

What is the key to competition in crypto banking?

Digital banks, crypto cards, wallets, super apps, and DeFi protocols are all converging towards the same goal: to become the primary gateway for your savings, spending, earning, and transferring in the new era.

The flow of stablecoins and the spillover effects in the foreign exchange market

Research has found that an exogenous increase in net inflows of stablecoins significantly widens the price deviation between stablecoins and traditional foreign exchange, leads to depreciation of the local currency, and worsens the financing conditions for synthetic dollars (i.e., increases the doll...

After two years, Hong Kong's first batch of stablecoin licenses finally issued: HSBC, Standard Chartered make the cut

The regulated entity is set to launch a stablecoin in the first half of this year.

The person who helped TAO rise by 90% has now single-handedly crashed the price again today

As long as people are around, the story continues. But once they're gone, you may not even find a worthy opponent to play against.

3-Minute Guide to Participating in the SpaceX IPO on Bitget

Bitget IPO Prime brings a rare opportunity for global users to participate in world-class unicorn IPOs, allowing ordinary users to equally access the potential economic benefits of top-tier IPOs.