Chinese authorities have detained Li Xiong, the former chairman of Cambodian conglomerate Huione Group, on suspicion of leading a criminal organization engaged in cross-border gambling and fraud. China’s Ministry of Public Security identified Li as a core member of the alleged network, which operated e-commerce, payment, and cryptocurrency services. Cambodia‘s Interior Ministry confirmed that Li was arrested and deported following a joint investigation conducted at the request of Chinese authorities.
Huione Group has faced significant scrutiny from regulators in the United States. The U.S. Treasury Department‘s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network previously designated the company a “primary money laundering concern,” stating that it received at least $4 billion in illegal proceeds between August 2021 and January 2025. Those funds were linked to scams, stolen assets, and a range of cybercrime activities.
In February, agents with the U.S. Scam Center Strike Force reported that freezes and seizures connected to illicit cryptocurrency activity in Southeast Asia exceeded $580 million. Experts say Huione Group occupied a central position in the infrastructure that enabled large-scale crypto scam networks to move and launder money across the region. The company’s services are said to have reduced friction for criminal actors seeking to transfer funds at scale.
Ari Redbord, global head of policy and government affairs at blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs, described Huione as one of the most significant illicit finance enablers his organization has tracked in Southeast Asia. He said TRM has observed tens of billions of dollars in cryptocurrency flowing through services linked to Huione in recent years, with consistent ties to fraud proceeds and other illegal activity. Redbord noted that what sets a platform like Huione apart is not only the volume of transactions but its repeated appearance across multiple criminal categories.
“What distinguishes a platform like Huione is not just volume, but its role as a hub that repeatedly appears across multiple criminal typologies and acts as a shared service layer for bad actors,” Redbord said. He added that enforcement actions can disrupt laundering networks but rarely dismantle them entirely. Criminal actors tend to adapt quickly, shifting toward parallel or successor services when pressure increases.
Li’s case is not isolated within the region. Chen Zhi, founder of the Prince Group conglomerate and an alleged associate of Li, was extradited from Cambodia to China earlier this year. The Prince Group had faced sanctions from both the United States and the United Kingdom over alleged connections to cyber scam networks. In March, prosecutors in Taiwan indicted more than 62 individuals over alleged ties to the same organization.
Southeast Asia has become a recognized hub for cybercrime operations targeting victims globally, with many schemes run from organized compounds. These operations include cryptocurrency investment fraud and romance scams. Interpol designated such scam compounds a transnational criminal threat last year, drawing attention to their reliance on human trafficking, coerced labor, and large-scale online fraud as core components of their operations.
Originally reported by Decrypt.
