PHNOM PENH (Reuters): The US Treasury plans to ban Cambodian financial firm Huione Group from the US financial system, deeming it of "primary money laundering concern" over its alleged role in laundering illicit funds from cyber heists and online scams.
The Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) said on Thursday that it had proposed severing Huione's access to the US financial system by outlawing US firms from opening or maintaining correspondent banking accounts for or on behalf of Huione.
The proposal now enters a 30-day consultation period.
Phnom Penh-based Huione Group is the "marketplace of choice for malicious cyber actors" such as North Korea and criminal syndicates who have stolen billions of dollars from Americans, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement.
Huione Group did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent on Friday on the FinCEN proposal.
FinCEN said that Huione Group laundered at least $4 billion worth of illicit funds between August 2021 and January 2025, including at least $37 million in crypto from cyber heists by North Korea and $36 million of crypto from so-called "pig butchering" scams, where individuals contacted online are defrauded.
FinCEN's proposal cited a Reuters story published last year that found that Huione Pay, a unit of Huione Group, received crypto worth over $150,000 between June 2023 and February 2024 from a digital wallet used by North Korean hacking outfit Lazarus.
Huione Pay told Reuters in response to its 2024 story that it had not known it "received funds indirectly" from hacks by Lazarus, adding that the digital wallet that sent the funds was not under its management.
Crypto transfers allow North Korea to circumvent international sanctions, the United Nations has previously said, offering a route to buying banned goods and services.
North Korea's mission to the United Nations in Geneva did not pick up calls from Reuters. The mission previously told Reuters that reporting on Lazarus was "all speculation and misinformation."
(Reporting by Tom Wilson in London; Editing by Tommy Reggiori Wilkes and Freya Whitworth) - Reuters
