Cambodia extradites alleged cyber scam linchpin to China as crackdown intensifies

The former chairman of a Cambodian financial conglomerate accused of laundering money for the scamming industry was extradited to China on Wednesday, authorities announced. 

Li Xiong was the head of Huione Group, whose branded entities at one time included an online banking arm, cryptocurrency exchange and online marketplace which has been referred to as an “Amazon for criminals.” 

Citing the Ministry of Public Security, Chinese state media linked Xiong to Chen Zhi, the former head of Prince Group who was recently arrested and extradited to China for allegedly overseeing a multibillion-dollar scamming enterprise. 

He was described as a “a key member of the Chen Zhi criminal syndicate.” According to Xinhua, he is suspected of “operating gambling dens, fraud, unlawful business operations, and concealing and disguising the proceeds of crime.” In a statement, Cambodia’s Ministry of Interior said Xiong’s Cambodian citizenship had been revoked by royal decree.

Xiong’s arrest coincides with a crackdown in Cambodia against a scam industry that had been allowed to flourish for years amid public denials of its existence by the country’s leaders. The government has said it plans to fully eradicate scam compounds within its borders by the end of April. 

Raids on facilities in recent months have exposed the scale of misery within the compounds, where workers who have been trafficked from all over the world carry out pig butchering and other investment scams. Rescued workers without the means or legal documents to return to their home countries are reportedly languishing on the streets of Phnom Penh.

Companies like Huione Group that supply digital and financial infrastructure to the scamming industry have allowed the criminal enterprises to scale up operations, according to researchers. 

In May 2025, the U.S. Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network labeled Huione Group “a financial institution of primary money laundering concern” and accused it of laundering the spoils of cyber heists carried out by North Korean hackers and transnational groups in Southeast Asia.

From August 2021 until January 2025, the Treasury said, Huione laundered at least $4 billion of illicit funds. 

“Huione Group has established itself as the marketplace of choice for malicious cyber actors like the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] and criminal syndicates, who have stolen billions of dollars from everyday Americans,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said at the time.