The U.S. Department of Justice has blocked the cloud infrastructure of the "crypto laundering" Huione Group.
The U.S. Department of Justice has dealt another blow to the infrastructure of a global crypto crime syndicate. As part of the operation, the agency seized a cloud account used by Huione Group entities to facilitate money laundering services derived from crypto scams and other forms of cybercrime.
The seized account supported the server infrastructure through which illegal platforms and communication channels operated. According to the investigation, the Huione Group ecosystem provided services to organizers of investment fraud, cryptocurrency thieves, personal data traders, and operators of fraudulent call centers. In particular, related Telegram channels actively advertised money laundering schemes and the sale of stolen databases.
One of the largest operators of crypto crime
Huione Group has long been under close scrutiny by U.S. regulators. As early as 2025, the U.S. Treasury Department's FinCEN designated the company as a "primary money laundering concern," effectively cutting it off from the U.S. financial system. According to the agency's estimates, from August 2021 to January 2025, at least $4 billion in illicit funds passed through the group's structures, including money from cryptocurrency fraud, cyberattacks by North Korean hackers, and other criminal schemes.
The ecosystem included the payment service Huione Pay, the cryptocurrency platform Huione Crypto, and the marketplace Haowang Guarantee (formerly Huione Guarantee), which analysts called the largest illegal online platform for servicing crypto scammers.
Pressure on fraudsters' infrastructure intensifies
The seizure of server infrastructure is not just a one-time operation but a systemic U.S. campaign against financial services that support transnational fraud networks in Southeast Asia. The goal is not only to prosecute individual criminals but also to completely dismantle the infrastructure that enables the entire crypto scam ecosystem.
It is worth noting that the scale of the problem is growing: in 2025, over $154 billion was deposited into illicit crypto wallets—a 162% increase compared to 2024, according to a Chainalysis report.
My comment as an analyst: This is a landmark step, demonstrating that regulators are moving from targeted crackdowns to the systemic dismantling of crypto crime infrastructure. However, given the volumes flowing through such networks, seizing one cloud account is merely a drop in the ocean. The key challenge is the speed at which criminals migrate to new, even more secure platforms.