The US Treasury Department wants to block the Cambodia-based Huione Group from accessing the US banking system, accusing it of helping North Korea’s state-backed Lazarus Group to launder its crypto.

The Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) proposed on May 1 to prohibit US financial institutions from opening or maintaining correspondent or payable-through accounts for or on behalf of the Huione Group.

Huione Group has established itself as the “marketplace of choice for malicious cyber actors” like the Lazarus Group, who have “stolen billions of dollars from everyday Americans,” US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a May 1 statement.

“Today’s proposed action will sever Huione Group’s access to correspondent banking, degrading these groups’ ability to launder their ill-gotten gains.”

Huione Group has set up a network of businesses, which includes payment service platform Huione Pay PLC, the crypto exchange Huione Crypto, and Haowang Guarantee, an online marketplace offering illicit goods and services.

Although the conglomerate doesn’t have correspondent accounts with US financial institutions, it has accounts with foreign firms with US correspondent accounts, FinCEN noted in its rulemaking submission.

The proposed rule is subject to a 30-day public comment period before it can take effect.

Huione expanded into sophisticated cybercrime network

FinCEN claimed that Huione Group has laundered at least $4 billion worth of illicit proceeds between August 2021 and January 2025, including more than $36 million from crypto pig butchering scams.

At least $37 million worth of the crypto laundered has been linked to North Korea’s “cyber heists,” the Treasury said.

Haowang Guarantee has made Huione Group a “one stop shop” for criminals to launder crypto obtained through illicit activities, and ultimately convert it to fiat currency, the Treasury said.

Related: North Korean crypto attacks rising in sophistication, actors — Paradigm

The conglomerate has also created a US dollar-pegged stablecoin, the US Dollar Huione (USDH), which FinCEN said cannot be frozen and helps to carry out money laundering activities.

The National Bank of Cambodia has stated that payment firms aren’t allowed to deal or trade digital assets in the country and had revoked the company’s local banking license in March.

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The US Securities and Exchange Commission has filed to drop another of its crypto lawsuits, this time its unregistered securities sales case against crypto influencer and YouTuber Ian Balina. 

The SEC said in a May 1 joint stipulation with Balina to an Austin federal court that it “believes the dismissal of this case is appropriate,” citing the work of the agency’s Crypto Task Force.

The agency didn’t give a reason for wanting to dismiss its case, but said its decision “does not necessarily reflect the Commission’s position on any other case.”

Balina told Cointelegraph in March that the SEC had informed him it would recommend the court dismiss the case and claimed the agency’s actions were based on a shift in the agency’s priorities.

“Obviously, the new administration is pro-crypto,” Balina said. The SEC has seen a change in leadership under US President Donald Trump, who appointed former crypto lobbyist Paul Atkins to chair the agency.

The joint stipulation argued a dismissal would also conserve the court’s resources “without costs or fees to either party.”

Balina is the CEO of Token Metrics, a crypto influencer with 140,000 followers on X, and a YouTuber whom the SEC accused of improperly promoting crypto projects, particularly during the initial coin offering (ICO) boom circa 2017.

The SEC sued Balina in 2022, alleging that he conducted an unregistered securities offering of Sparkster (SPRK) tokens when he formed an investing pool on Telegram in 2018.

The SEC claimed that US-based investors participated in Balina’s investing pool, using Ether (ETH), which was validated by a network of nodes “which are clustered more densely in the United States than in any other country.”

Related: SEC drops investigation into PayPal’s stablecoin

The court sided with the SEC and, in May 2024, ruled that SPRK was an investment contract under US securities laws, where investors pooled money into a common enterprise expecting profits due to the efforts of others.

Shift in crypto policy

The move is the latest in a long list of crypto-related court actions that the SEC has quashed under the Trump administration’s favorable stance toward the industry. 

Over the past month, it has dropped several cases and abandoned multiple investigations against crypto firms, including against Coinbase, Ripple, Kraken, Opensea and PayPal’s stablecoin. 

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