Blockchain analysts at British forensic firm Elliptic have identified the Cambodia-based marketplace, Huione Guarantee, as a significant hub for crypto scammers.

Huione Guarantee, partially linked to the Cambodian ruling family, has become a center for merchants offering money laundering services. According to a report by Elliptic, the marketplace operates through a network of thousands of Telegram messaging channels and serves as an escrow provider for all USDT transfers, attracting bad actors willing to launder proceeds from fraud activities.

In addition to money laundering, Huione’s merchants are also involved in selling software designed to create scam crypto investment websites. Elliptic’s analysis reveals that crypto wallets associated with Huione Guarantee and its merchants have received over $11 billion since 2021. However, the total figure is likely higher due to the significant turnover of merchants and incomplete information on their cryptocurrency wallets.

“Not all of these transactions can be definitively linked to fraud or other illicit activity,” analysts noted. However, the nature of the products and services advertised on the platform strongly indicates that the majority of these payments are related to illicit activities.

Elliptic’s manual analysis of thousands of messages across the Huione Guarantee platform provided overwhelming evidence that its predominant role is to act as an illicit marketplace. Although Huione Guarantee exhibits many characteristics of a darknet marketplace, it is part of a broader business run by the Cambodian conglomerate, Huione Group.

Huione Group also operates a payments and foreign exchange business, Huione Pay, where one of the directors, Hun To, is a cousin of the current Cambodian prime minister, Hun Manet. Hun To has reportedly been suspected of heroin trafficking and money laundering by Australian police. Elliptic’s findings suggest that Huione Group not only facilitates cyber scams through the Huione Guarantee marketplace but also indicates that one of its subsidiaries is actively involved in laundering proceeds from these scams.

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