Depth Revelation: The Corporate Group Behind Asia's Largest Cyber Black Market

The U.S. Department of the Treasury stated that Huizhong Enterprise Group laundered at least $4 billion from fraud and cryptocurrency theft. This article reveals in detail how Huizhong has helped the Asian online fraud industry expand into a multi-billion dollar behemoth, based on more than 20 interviews with government officials, company insiders, and alleged victims, as well as internal documents.

Former hacker Ngo Minh Hieu commented: "Huiwang is like the Amazon for criminals. Their business organization and product range shocked me."

The corporate history of Huiwang is extremely opaque. It seems to have never made public financial disclosures, nor does it have employees or office premises. Essentially, it is just a shell of a network of affiliated companies. The directors of these branches often overlap, but the relationships between the departments are unclear.

The U.S. Treasury Department specifically named three entities, stating that they played a role in helping criminal groups transfer illegal funds: Huizhong Payment, cryptocurrency exchange Huione Crypto, and online trading platform operator "Haowang Guarantee." The Treasury stated that these three entities are "essentially the same" as their parent company.

In May of this year, the U.S. Treasury Department announced plans to completely exclude Huobi from the U.S. financial system, while noting that Huobi's clients included multinational criminal organizations and the North Korean hacker "Lazarus Group." The Treasury stated that "the risks associated with Huobi's connections to illegal actors and transactions are "further exacerbated" due to the lack of effective anti-money laundering/customer identity verification ( AML/KYC ) policies and procedures.

Other countries are also strengthening their crackdown. Thailand, which borders Cambodia, announced in June that it is investigating the Huibang Group for allegedly handling funds from illegal gambling and fraud. In the business sector, the instant messaging application Telegram has closed dozens of chat groups related to Huibang.

Although these entities have claimed a direct connection to each other in the past, currently no independent entity has publicly acknowledged any association with Huibang Group.

But network activities and two individuals familiar with business operations indicate that these three departments still seem to be operating in some form, circumventing disruption and regulatory pressure by changing names or directing customers to affiliated companies.

The continued existence of Huiwang Enterprise Group highlights the difficulty of closing decentralized markets, as well as the resilience of the Huiwang architecture and the group's ability to find alternative solutions. Internal documents show that its so-called "Money Mule" ( is responsible for money laundering and has targeted victims in at least 12 countries. Business documents indicate that some departments of Huiwang have branches in Poland, Canada, and Japan.

Within Huiwang, this infrastructure is located in a mysterious department "Huiwang International Payments". According to two anonymous sources, this department is the main operating base for assisting daily fraud activities. In addition to managing online crime markets on instant messaging applications like Telegram, employees also directly connect scammers with money mules and charge fees.

The growth of the cyber fraud industry is rapid. According to Chainalysis data, the revenue from "pig-butchering" scams surged by nearly 40% in 2024 compared to the previous year. As the industry expands, questions from global law enforcement officials are increasing: how are criminal masterminds acquiring tools like fake passports, malware, facial recognition software, and money mules ) to achieve such rapid growth? The answer lies in a new batch of online trading markets.

The blockchain research firm Elliptic released a report in January concluding that at least $24 billion has flowed through the cryptocurrency wallets used by Huobi Global and its merchants. The estimate from blockchain intelligence company TRM Labs is even higher, reaching $81 billion. Regardless of which estimate is used, it indicates that Huobi Global's scale far exceeds that of its largest predecessor - the "Hydra Market" operated by Russia, which was shut down by U.S. and German officials.

Bloomberg reviewed some internal documents of Huibang International Payment from 2022 to 2023, which are mainly written in Chinese, recording thousands of victims and tens of millions of dollars in transactions. The documents show that employees are directly involved in monitoring transactions and handling disputes, and that the platform regularly takes a commission from transactions. The documents also indicate that Huibang International Payment is deeply involved in operations, even providing large credit limits to high-performing money laundering teams.

Huiwang's limited records of its operations in Cambodia show that these businesses are jointly led by Chinese managers and local power brokers, which is a common symbiotic relationship in Cambodia. In recent years, a large influx of Chinese capital has flowed into the country, changing this nation.

Even if the U.S. Treasury attempts to exclude Huibao from the U.S. financial system, its threat may not be as significant as it seems. Generally speaking, online fraud does not require physical distance, and money launderers are skilled at transferring funds through money mule accounts.

Huion has another layer of protection: its own currency. Historically, many transactions were conducted in USDT. However, when Tether began freezing suspicious wallets using Huion, Huione Crypto launched its own stablecoin, USDH, last year.

Taiwanese scholar Chen Yanyu, who studies cybercrime, spent several months in Cambodia talking to alleged money launderers, fraudsters, and their leaders. She said that this interconnected network of interests has become adept at various workarounds, whether exploiting loopholes in Cambodia's financial system or leveraging favorable regulations in other countries.

"Cybercrime has deeply embedded itself in the operation of global capitalism, plundering resources from all over the world," said Chen Yanyu, "it cannot be easily dismantled."