U.S. Treasury seeks to block Huione Group over North Korea laundering ties
By: cryptosheadlines|2025/05/02 18:45:01
0
Share
Airdrop Is Live CaryptosHeadlines Media Has Launched Its Native Token CHT. Airdrop Is Live For Everyone, Claim Instant 5000 CHT Tokens Worth Of $50 USDT. Join the Airdrop at the official website, CryptosHeadlinesToken.com The U.S. Department of the Treasury has proposed a federal rule to sever the Cambodia-based Huione Group’s access to the U.S. financial system, citing the company’s alleged involvement in laundering billions of dollars linked to North Korean cybercrime and online fraud schemes.According to the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), Huione and its affiliates have facilitated significant illicit transactions since August 2021. These transactions are connected to online romance and investment scams.The proposed action will make it more difficult for cybercriminals such as Lazarus Group to launder their illicit profits. Notably, a 30-day public comment period must be completed before the proposed rule becomes operative.Huione Group becomes a preferred marketplace for criminals to conduct money laundering operationsU.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement on May 1 that malicious cybercriminals such as Lazarus Group had stolen billions of dollars from regular Americans and that Huione Group has become their preferred marketplace.These remarks followed investigations that the Huione Group had established a network of companies, including the cryptocurrency exchange Huione Crypto, the payment service platform Huione Pay PLC, and the online marketplace Haowang Guarantee, which sold illegal goods and services.Moreover, FinCEN revealed that from August 2021 to January 2025, Huione Group allegedly laundered at least $4 billion in illicit proceeds, including over $36 million from cryptocurrency pig slaughtering schemes. According to the Treasury, at least $37 million worth of the cryptocurrency that was laundered was connected to North Korea’s “cyber heists.”One notable case involved the laundering of $35 million from the $305 million hack of Japan’s DMM Bitcoin exchange through Huione Guarantee, a subsidiary of Huione Group.Victims of these scams have suffered significant financial losses. Beth Hyland, one of the pig butchering victims, said she had been the victim of a Tinder scammer in 2024 who kept “manipulating and gaslighting” her until she sent over a significant amount through Bitcoin ATMs.“We started chatting and hit it off right away. We were going to meet. He said he was a freelance manager for a construction company,” Hyland recalled, explaining how the Nigeria-based con artist kept claiming he was locked out of his bank accounts and was hard up for funds to pay his workers.The Treasury said that Haowang Guarantee had turned Huione Group into a “one-stop shop” for criminals to launder cryptocurrency they had acquired through illegal means and then exchange it for fiat currency.Furthermore, Huione Pay, a company based in Phnom Penh, was reported to have received more than $150,000 in cryptocurrency last year from a wallet belonging to North Korea’s notorious Lazarus hacking group, which was suspected of stealing billions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency over the years, most likely to finance domestic projects.According to Bessent, today’s proposed action will sever Huione Group’s access to correspondent banking, degrading these groups’ ability to launder their ill-gotten gains. Treasury remains committed to disrupting malicious cyber actors’ attempts to secure revenue from or for their criminal schemes.The Huione Group gets into trouble for its cryptocurrency laundering activitiesThe conglomerate had also developed the U.S. Dollar Huione (USDH), a U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin FinCEN claimed was unfrozen and aided in money laundering.Consequently, payment companies were prohibited from dealing with or trading digital assets in Cambodia, according to the National Bank of Cambodia, revoking the company’s local banking license in March.In addition, concerning the U.S. Treasury Department’s suggestion to cut off the Cambodia-based Huione Group from the U.S. financial system, the FinCEN attempted to use Section 311 of the USA PATRIOT Act, which gave it nuclear option power, to make this possible.In its rulemaking submission, the Treasury’s FinCEN pointed out that while the conglomerate did not have correspondent accounts with U.S. financial institutions, it did have accounts with foreign companies with U.S. correspondent accounts.The Treasury’s action against Huione is part of a broader effort to combat North Korea’s use of cybercrime and digital asset theft to fund its weapons programs. In December 2024, the U.S. sanctioned two Chinese nationals and a UAE-based company for facilitating money laundering operations that funneled illicit proceeds back to Pyongyang.Cryptopolitan Academy: Want to grow your money in 2025? Learn how to do it with DeFi in our upcoming webclass. Save Your SpotSource link
You may also like

Trading Never Sleeps: On-Chain, Crude Oil, and Leverage
The prices in this window are determined by emotions, amplified by leverage, driven by the narrative of war—rather than by the supply and demand of crude oil.

On-chain Yield Panorama: The Evolution from Interest-bearing Stablecoins to Crypto Credit Products
In a bear market, investors tend to prefer more stable returns and lower underlying risks, which has driven the growth of interest-bearing stablecoins.

RootData announced the integration with OpenClaw, and these gameplay features have gone viral
In the era of AI Agents, the value of data lies not in "ownership," but in "connection."

Key Market Intelligence on March 9th, how much did you miss out on?
1. On-chain Funds: $221M flowed into Hyperliquid last week; $186.7M flowed out of Arbitrum
2. Largest Price Swings: $DENT, $UAI
3. Top News: Middle East Conflict Sparks Stagflation Trading, Global Stock Markets Shed Around $6 Trillion

a16z: After AI Superpowers, Where to Next for Humanity?
Cryptocurrency will become the cornerstone of trust in this new era.

Why Does Oil Go Up When Bitcoin Goes Down?
The Impact of Middle Eastern Oil on Bitcoin Price

Decoding 112,000 Polymarket Addresses: The Top 1% Making Money Are Doing These Five Things
Those loss-making addresses are not stupid, just lacking discipline — too many markets involved, overexposure, excessive FOMO, and hardly any post-mortem.

AAVE founder issues a warning: DeFi must never become the exit liquidity for Wall Street private credit
In order for RWA to succeed in DeFi and for DeFi to achieve meaningful scale expansion through real-world assets, the entire industry needs to thoughtfully and cautiously build opportunities that connect TradFi (traditional finance) and on-chain markets.
How To Create A Frequency So Strong It Makes Reality Obey You
The first-ever WEEX AI Hackathon has concluded, with 10 winners emerging from over 200 global teams. Beyond its $1.8 million prize pool, the event marked a milestone—proving that the future of AI trading belongs to accessible, AI-powered innovation.

The cryptocurrency industry has waited for five and a half years, and what they got is half a ticket
The hand that opens this door is not the rule, but the direction of the wind.

The trend of Ethena reveals what information about the cryptocurrency market
Through Ethena's data insights: the collective hedging and self-protection of VCs and project parties is leading the crypto market into an extreme risk-averse moment of "complete balance between bulls and bears" for the first time in history.

I've been in the crypto industry for five and a half years, and all I got was half a ticket.
The hand that opens this door is not a rule, but a wind.

Crude Oil Surges 25%, Hyperliquid Unfolds On-Chain Showdown
Hyperliquid users now need to keep an eye on the latest developments in the Iran Hormuz Strait, while a DeFi OG is using on-chain derivatives to hedge against war risk.

$20 Billion Valuation, Is Kalshi Engaging in an Arms Race with Polymarket?
US-Iran Conflict + World Cup + Eve of Elections, Predicts Market Key Data Points to Reach New All-Time Highs in 2026.

Will Not Messing with OpenClaw Lead to Obsolescence in the AI Era? | Lobster Fuss Summit
Amazon Web Services On-Site Guidance to Deploy OpenClaw, Low-Cost and User-Friendly

Anticipating the Market's New Challenge to Political Elections
The next US presidential election will depend on the prediction markets

The Shadow Business Empire of Iran's New Supreme Leader: Oil, Real Estate, and Financial Intrigue
From political and military influence to shaping the financial network, Mujataba has secretly laid the groundwork to assume the ultimate leadership position.

Next-Generation Software Built for Trillion-Agent Scale
When the Agent becomes a key user of the software, software design, infrastructure, and business model will all change accordingly
Trading Never Sleeps: On-Chain, Crude Oil, and Leverage
The prices in this window are determined by emotions, amplified by leverage, driven by the narrative of war—rather than by the supply and demand of crude oil.
On-chain Yield Panorama: The Evolution from Interest-bearing Stablecoins to Crypto Credit Products
In a bear market, investors tend to prefer more stable returns and lower underlying risks, which has driven the growth of interest-bearing stablecoins.
RootData announced the integration with OpenClaw, and these gameplay features have gone viral
In the era of AI Agents, the value of data lies not in "ownership," but in "connection."
Key Market Intelligence on March 9th, how much did you miss out on?
1. On-chain Funds: $221M flowed into Hyperliquid last week; $186.7M flowed out of Arbitrum
2. Largest Price Swings: $DENT, $UAI
3. Top News: Middle East Conflict Sparks Stagflation Trading, Global Stock Markets Shed Around $6 Trillion
a16z: After AI Superpowers, Where to Next for Humanity?
Cryptocurrency will become the cornerstone of trust in this new era.
Why Does Oil Go Up When Bitcoin Goes Down?
The Impact of Middle Eastern Oil on Bitcoin Price