🚨 From Sleepy Coast to Crime Capital
Tucked along Cambodia’s southern coast, a former sleepy town has transformed into something far more sinister—a hub for global crime. Behind towering concrete walls, scam compounds flourish, trafficking victims and orchestrating massive cyber fraud schemes that reach across borders. At the heart of it all: Huione.
🧩 The Dark Empire in Plain Sight
Huione looks like a legitimate Cambodian conglomerate. Walk into a local shop or restaurant, and you’ll likely see a QR code for Huione Pay—one of its major arms. Tap your phone, and your payment goes through. On the surface, it’s business as usual.
But authorities say there’s a far darker system operating in parallel. Beneath the clean facade of Huione Pay lies a web of transactions designed to launder money, fuel scams, and facilitate an unprecedented scale of organized cybercrime.
💸 Matchmakers in Fraud
According to U.S. investigators, Huione International Pay—an alleged subunit—helps connect scammers with money mules. Victims, often manipulated through romance scams or investment schemes, unknowingly fund this chain. Once the money is extracted, it passes through mule accounts, is converted into cryptocurrency, and then Huione allegedly takes a cut for brokering the deal.
📲 Huione Guarantee: Crime Made Easy
On Telegram, a marketplace called Huione Guarantee operates with frightening efficiency. Sellers offer everything an online scammer needs: stolen identities, hacked accounts, payment processors—you name it.
To evade detection, users deploy coded language. “Moving bricks” means money laundering. “Dog pushers” and “runaway dogs” refer to victims and trafficked workers, often imprisoned in scam compounds. It reads like gibberish to outsiders but serves as an unbreakable code for insiders.
📊 Scale That Dwarfs the Dark Web
Darknet markets like Silk Road once grabbed headlines. But their total transaction volume pales in comparison to Huione Guarantee. Authorities estimate Huione processed $28 billion—more than double all first-generation dark web markets combined.
📁 Proof in the Paper Trail
Internal Huione documents reviewed by Bloomberg show detailed logs of victim payments and bank transfers. Each scam is recorded meticulously—victim names, amounts, destinations—creating a direct link between Huione and the flow of illicit funds.
🇨🇳 Ties to China, Power in Cambodia
Much of the criminal infrastructure traces back to Chinese-backed developments in Cambodia. Chinese mafia networks reportedly fund scam compounds, while Chinese-run casinos in cities like Sihanoukville double as human trafficking and cybercrime hubs.
Adding to the complexity is Huione’s political proximity. Hun To, a Huione Pay director, is the cousin of Cambodia’s Prime Minister. Another Huione director runs Panda Bank. These deep-rooted ties make accountability challenging—and perhaps, intentionally evasive.
💰 Crypto Shell Games
To skirt increasing scrutiny, Huione expanded globally. In 2023, it launched Huione Crypto in Poland—using a virtual address at a shared mailbox facility. It’s not illegal, but it’s designed to blur jurisdictional lines. The group also launched a stablecoin called USDH to avoid the risks of wallet freezes from regulators.
🌐 Web Without Borders
Despite being blacklisted by the U.S. Treasury and losing access to major Telegram channels, Huione continues to thrive. It rebranded to Kex in mid-2025. Even with Tether freezing wallets and platforms being dismantled, the operation simply shifts, adapts, and re-emerges.
The infrastructure is so open and accessible, anyone can join. This isn’t the shadowy underworld—it’s happening in broad daylight, in public Telegram chats, using tools anyone can download.
🎯 A Cybercrime Empire Built to Survive
Huione is more than a company—it’s an entire ecosystem. Its scale, adaptability, and integration into global systems make it a threat unlike any before. As international agencies scramble to keep up, one thing is clear: Huione isn’t just a cog in the cybercrime machine—it might be the engine.
