Sawt Falasteen - Cambodia extradites accused cyberscam boss to China

China's state broadcaster CCTV showed Huione Group's former chairman Li Xiong, 41, shaven-headed and in handcuffs being escorted by Chinese police off a China Southern plane.

Phnom Penh-based Huione Group served as a "critical node for laundering proceeds of cyber heists" carried out by the North Korean government and for transnational criminal groups in Southeast Asia perpetrating crypto investment scams, the US Treasury said last year.

The Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) said the conglomerate, which owned several companies offering e-commerce, payment and cryptocurrency exchange services, had received at least $4 billion worth of illegal proceeds between August 2021 and January 2025. That included proceeds from scams, stolen funds and illicit cyber actors.

State news agency Xinhua said Li was central to a "major cross-border gambling and fraud syndicate", citing China's Ministry of Public Security.

"Investigations found that Li Xiong, the former chairman of Huione Group under the Prince Group, is suspected of multiple crimes," the ministry said in a statement.

Phnom Penh extradited Prince Group's China-born founder Chen Zhi in January after his Cambodian conglomerate was sanctioned by the US and UK governments months earlier over its alleged involvement in cyberscams.

Beijing called Huione's Li "a core member of Chen Zhi's criminal gang" on Wednesday.

Li was arrested in Cambodia and deported at the request of Chinese authorities following a months-long joint investigation, Cambodia's interior ministry said in a statement.

Cambodia has emerged as a hotspot for cyberscam operations in recent years. Transnational crime groups initially mostly targeted Chinese speakers before widening their reach and stealing tens of billions of dollars annually from victims around the world.

Organised criminal gangs have used casinos, hotels and fortified compounds across Southeast Asia as bases to carry out sophisticated online scams, defrauding people through cryptocurrency investment schemes and fake romantic relationships, according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime.

- 'One stop shop' -

FinCEN designated Huione Group a "primary money-laundering concern" in May, later prohibiting US financial institutions from maintaining accounts for it or processing transactions involving the firm.

Criminal actors affiliated with the North Korean government have "extensively used the Huione Group to launder" stolen cryptocurrency for the benefit of Pyongyang's ballistic missile programmes, in violation of US and international sanctions, FinCEN said.

Huione's crypto services and online marketplace made the group a "one stop shop" for criminals to launder cryptocurrency gained through illegal activities and convert it to money, it said.

AFP's phone calls to several numbers listed for Huione companies on Cambodia's official business registry went unanswered on Wednesday.

Chen and Li had both been granted Cambodian citizenship, which was later revoked.

Chen had served as an adviser to both Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet and his father, former leader Hun Sen.

Hun Manet told AFP in February that the government "did not know that he was the kingpin" and pushed back against allegations of government complicity.

Cambodian authorities have vowed to close all online scam centres by the end of April, with Hun Manet saying they were giving the nation a bad name.

The law enforcement push, which analysts have criticised as window-dressing, has seen thousands of people flee suspected scam sites in recent months.

A spokesperson for China's foreign ministry said on Wednesday that "combating online gambling and telecoms fraud is the shared responsibility of the global community".

Washington alleged last year that Prince Group, one of Cambodia's biggest conglomerates, has served as a front for "one of Asia's largest transnational criminal organizations".

Prince Group has denied the allegations.

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R.Halabi--SF-PST