U.S. prosecutors have taken aim at the technical core of a sprawling crypto-laundering network, seizing a cloud computing account that investigators say powered billions of dollars in illicit transfers.
On June 23, 2026, the Justice Department announced it had seized a cloud account used by subsidiaries of the Huione Group, a Cambodia-based conglomerate accused of helping launder proceeds from crypto investment fraud, romance scams, and other cybercrimes. The account reportedly hosted “backend infrastructure” that let criminals move, obscure, and convert stolen crypto into fiat before it entered the traditional banking system.
“Today’s seizure strikes a blow against one of the world’s most prolific criminal marketplaces,” said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Criminal Division. According to court filings, the cloud account supported Huione Guarantee (also known as Haowang Guarantee), a Telegram-based marketplace where vendors traded stolen card and ID data, malware proceeds, and laundering services — and ran escrow services that facilitated crypto-based transactions for scammers and money launderers.
Blockchain investigators have labeled Huione Guarantee the largest illicit online marketplace to date, outpacing dark-web predecessors such as Silk Road. Telegram banned its channels in May 2025, but successor markets and related services repeatedly cropped up, underscoring the group’s resilience.
The seizure follows a year of stepped-up enforcement against Huione. In October 2025, the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued a final rule designating Huione as a “primary money laundering concern,” effectively cutting it off from the U.S. financial system over its role in laundering crypto-fraud proceeds and funds tied to North Korean cyberattacks. On Tuesday, FinCEN moved to extend that designation to a successor entity, H‑Pay Service PLC, to prevent the group from evading the ban.
The action is part of Operation Riptide, an FBI campaign targeting the infrastructure that enables online fraud. The case was investigated by the FBI’s San Francisco field office and IRS Criminal Investigation, with technical assistance credited to blockchain analytics firms Chainalysis and Elliptic, and Google’s cybercrime team.
The broader context: crypto-related fraud continues to surge. In 2025 Americans reported more than $7.2 billion in losses from crypto investment fraud to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, and total cybercrime losses topped $20 billion — a 26% increase year over year.
Huione has repeatedly adapted under pressure — launching its own stablecoin, USDH, and shifting activity to affiliated platforms as enforcement tightened — illustrating the cat-and-mouse nature of law enforcement efforts in crypto. Monday’s seizure targets the plumbing that enables large-scale laundering; whether it slows the overall ecosystem of illicit markets will depend on how quickly operators can reconstitute infrastructure and find new service providers.
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