The US Treasury Department has proposed a federal rule to interrupt the Huione Group access to the US financial system, referring to the alleged stake in North Korean cybercrime and web-based fraud schemes in billions of dollars.
According to the Treasury's Financial Crime Entry Network (Fincen) illegal transactions From August 2021. These transactions are related to web-based romance and investment fraud.
The proposed activity will make it more difficult for cybercriminals to wash illegal profits for cybercriminals, such as the Lazarus group. Namely, the 30-day public comment period must be completed before the planned rule works.
Huione Group becomes the preferred market for criminals to organize money laundering operations
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement on May 1 that malicious cybercriminals like Lazarus Group stole billions of dollars from ordinary Americans and that Huione Group has become their preferred market.
These remarks followed that the Huione Group had founded a network of companies, including cryptocurrency exchange Huione Crypto, payment service platform Huione Pay PLC and the Haowang Warranty on the Web Market, which sold illegal goods and services.
Moreover, Fincen revealed that from August 2021 to January 2025, the Huione Group is allegedly washed at least $ 4 billion in illegal income, including more than $ 36 million from schemes killed with cryptocurrency. According to the Treasury, the washed cryptocurrency was connected at least $ 37 million worth of North Korea's “Cyber Heist”.
One significant case included a $ 35 million laundry Japanese DMM Bitcoin exchange of $ 305 million hacking through Huione Guarantee, Huione's Huione guarantee.
The victims of these fraud have suffered significant financial damage. Beth Hyland, one of the swine victims, said he had been a victim of a Tinder fraudster in 2024 who kept him in manipulating and gas light until he sent a significant amount through Bitcoin ATMs.
“We started chatting and hit it right away. We were going to meet. He said he was a freelance manager for a construction company,” Hyland recalled, explaining how the artist in Nigeria was constantly claiming that he was locked in his bank accounts and was difficult to pay for his employees.
The Treasury reported that the Huowang warranty made the Huione Group criminals a “one -off shop” to wash the cryptocurrency they had acquired by illegal means, and then replace it with Fiat's currency.
In addition, Huione Pay, a company in Phnom Penh, has received more than $ 150,000 from the cryptocurrency of the cryptocurrency to the infamous Lazarus hacking group, which was suspected of stealing billions of dollars in cryptocausal stealing over the years.
According to Besesent, today's planned activity interrupts the Huione Group's access to correspondent banking, worsening the ability of these groups to wash their poorly. The Treasury is still committed to covering malicious cyber actors' experiments for the revenue or revenue of its criminal schemes.
Huione Group is in trouble for their cryptocurrency washing
The conglomerate had also developed US dollar Huione (USDH), and the US-dollar stability Fincen claimed that he was furnished and assisted money laundering.
Consequently, according to the National Bank of Cambodia, payment companies were banned or traded in Cambodia in Cambodia, canceling the company's local banking license in March.
In addition, in connection with the recommendation of the US Ministry of Finance to cut the Huione Group in Cambodia from the US Financial System, Fincen He tried to use Section 311 of the US Patriotic Act to allow it, which gave it a nuclear energy opportunity.
When submitting its rules, the Treasury Fincen pointed out that although the conglomerate had no correspondent accounts with US financial institutions, it had accounts with US correspondent accounts.
The activities of the Treasury against Huione are part of the broader efforts against the North Korea cybercrime and the use of digital property to fund their weapons programs. In December 2024, two Chinese citizens and UAE companies sanked for facilitating money laundering operations, which supported the illegal benefits back to Pyongyang.
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