U.S. authorities have struck at the technical backbone of what they call one of the most prolific criminal marketplaces ever to operate online.
Today, the Justice Department announced the seizure of a cloud computing account used by subsidiaries of the Huione Group, a Cambodia-based corporate conglomerate.
"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 department's Criminal Division. The account served as "a technological backbone that allowed billions in fraud proceeds to be transferred, moved, and concealed," he said, "much of it stolen through Southeast Asian scam centers."
According to court documents, the account helped operate Huione Guarantee, also known as Haowang Guarantee, a Telegram-based marketplace where vendors traded stolen card and identity data, malware proceeds, and laundering services for romance and investment scams. It also ran escrow services to help criminals, including money launderers, transact in crypto.
The case, investigated by the FBI's San Francisco field office and IRS Criminal Investigation, is part of Operation Riptide, an FBI campaign targeting the infrastructure behind online fraud. The department credited blockchain analytics firms Chainalysis and Elliptic, along with Google's cybercrime team, with assisting.
