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Southeast Asian criminal groups expand globally, with crypto assets becoming a primary tool for money laundering.
Southeast Asia Cybercrime Report: Crypto Assets Become Major Tool for Crime, All Parties Need to Strengthen International Cooperation
In April 2025, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) released a report titled "The Global Impact of Southeast Asia's Scam Centers, Underground Money Laundering, and Illegal Online Markets." The report systematically analyzes the emerging transnational organized crime patterns in Southeast Asia, with a particular focus on the new digital crime ecology centered around online scam centers, which integrates underground money laundering networks and illegal online market platforms.
Shortly after the report was released, on May 5, 2025, the U.S. Department of the Treasury announced sanctions against the Karen National Army (KNA) of Myanmar and its leaders and relatives, designating them as a significant transnational criminal organization involved in and facilitating cyber fraud, human trafficking, and cross-border money laundering activities. The U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network also listed Huione Group as a primary money laundering concern, indicating that it is a key conduit for North Korean hacker organizations and Southeast Asian fraud groups to launder proceeds from virtual asset crimes.
The UNODC warns that this type of criminal pattern has become highly systematized, specialized, and globalized, relying on emerging technologies for continuous evolution, and has become a significant blind spot in international security governance. The report calls on governments to immediately strengthen the regulation of virtual assets and illegal financial channels, promote on-chain intelligence sharing and cross-border collaboration mechanisms among law enforcement agencies, and establish a more efficient anti-money laundering and anti-fraud governance system.
Southeast Asia is gradually becoming the core of the criminal ecosystem
With the rapid expansion of the cybercrime industry in Southeast Asia, the region is gradually evolving into a key hub of the global crime ecosystem. Criminal groups are leveraging the region's weak governance, ease of cross-border collaboration, and technological vulnerabilities to establish highly organized and industrialized crime networks.
High liquidity and adaptability coexist
Southeast Asian cybercrime groups exhibit high mobility and strong adaptability, able to quickly adjust their activity locations based on law enforcement pressure, political situations, or geopolitical conditions. For example, after Cambodia cracked down on online gambling, many fraud gangs moved to special economic zones such as Shan State in Myanmar and the Golden Triangle in Laos, and then due to the conflict in Myanmar and regional joint law enforcement, they migrated again to places like the Philippines and Indonesia, forming a cycle of "crackdown-transfer-reflux."
Systematic evolution of the fraud industry chain
Fraud groups have established a "vertically integrated criminal industry chain" from data collection, execution of fraud to money laundering and cashing out. The upstream relies on platforms like Telegram to obtain global victim data; the midstream implements fraud through methods such as "pig butchering", "fake law enforcement", and "investment inducement"; the downstream relies on underground banks, OTC off-exchange trading, and stablecoin payments (such as USDT) to complete fund laundering and cross-border transfer.
Human Trafficking and Labor Black Market
The expansion of the scam industry is accompanied by systematic human trafficking and forced labor. Personnel in scam parks come from over 50 countries worldwide, often deceived into entering the country by false recruitment for "high-paying customer service" or "technical positions," resulting in their passports being confiscated, suffering from violent control, and even being resold multiple times. This "scam economy + modern slavery" model is no longer an isolated phenomenon but a means of human support that runs through the entire industry chain.
The digitalization and the ecological evolution of criminal technology continue.
Fraud groups possess strong technical adaptability, constantly upgrading counter-surveillance methods and building a "technical independence + information black box" criminal ecology. They typically deploy Starlink satellite communications, private power grids, intranet systems, and other infrastructures, breaking away from local communication control to achieve "offline survival." At the same time, they extensively use encryption communication, AI-generated content, automated phishing scripts, etc., to improve fraud efficiency and disguise levels. Some organizations have also launched "Scam-as-a-Service"(Scam-as-a-Service) platforms to provide technical templates and data support for other gangs.
Global Expansion Outside of Southeast Asia
Southeast Asian crime groups have expanded globally, establishing new operational bases in other parts of Asia, Africa, South America, the Middle East, and even Europe. This expansion not only increases the difficulty of law enforcement but also makes crimes such as fraud and money laundering more international in nature.
Asia
Africa
South America
Middle East
Europe
Emerging Illegal Online Markets and Money Laundering Services
As traditional criminal methods are being cracked down on, Southeast Asian crime syndicates are turning to more covert and efficient illegal online markets and money laundering services. These emerging platforms generally integrate Crypto Assets services, anonymous payment tools, and underground banking systems, providing various criminal entities with fraud toolkits, stolen data, and AI deepfake software, while also facilitating rapid fund movement through Crypto Assets, underground money houses, and Telegram black markets.
Telegram black market
Criminals in Southeast Asia are increasingly globalizing the range of services offered on various illegal online markets and forums based on Telegram. Telegram's ease of access, mobile-first design, strong encryption capabilities, instant messaging features, and automated operations through bots make it easier for criminals in Southeast Asia to carry out scams and scale their activities.
Fully Light Guarantee
Fully Light Guarantee, as a prototype platform for early illegal markets in Southeast Asia, was established and operated by the Liu family, controlled by the Kokang Border Defense Force, in Shan State, Myanmar. At its peak, it attracted over 350,000 users. The platform not only served as a scam center for the Kokang and Myawaddy regions but also acted as a trading market for human trafficking, intermediary recruitment, informal cross-border money laundering, and "black industry" technical support.
Huione Guarantee
Huione Guarantee has become one of the largest illegal online trading markets in the world in terms of users and trading volume, serving as a key infrastructure for the expansion of the Southeast Asian online fraud ecosystem. The platform is headquartered in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, primarily in Chinese, with a user base exceeding 970,000. Since 2021, Huione Guarantee has processed hundreds of billions of dollars in Crypto Assets transactions, becoming a one-stop service center for criminals to obtain resources needed for online fraud, cybercrime, large-scale money laundering, and evading sanctions.
Huione has also launched a series of its own Crypto Assets-related products, including a Crypto Assets exchange, an online gambling platform integrated with encryption, the Xone Chain blockchain network, and its self-issued US dollar-backed stablecoin. In February 2025, the group announced the launch of the Huione Visa card and disclosed that it is making significant investments in other large illegal online markets, social media, and messaging platforms, as well as professional money laundering services.
![UNODC releases report on fraud in Southeast Asia: Crypto Assets become tools for crime, and all parties need to strengthen international cooperation](https://img-cdn.gateio.im/webp-social/moments-5c0bec6dc8c52b79da3b6940428f0795.webp01
Transnational Criminal Networks and Global Law Enforcement Cooperation
In Southeast Asia, some transnational criminal organizations are using complex business structures to conceal illegal activities, particularly in the fields of money laundering and online fraud. The multi-billion dollar money laundering case that broke out in Singapore in 2023 revealed a large, cross-border, organized crime network that relies on multiple nationalities and Crypto Assets. Most of the suspects in the case were born in China but obtained multiple national passports through various countries' investment citizenship programs and extensively set up companies, bank accounts, and high-value real estate in Southeast Asia and overseas to cover up illegal gains from telecommunications fraud, illegal online gambling, and other illicit activities.
To curb such transnational organized encryption crime, efforts need to be made from the following aspects to promote international cooperation and the establishment of an on-chain governance system:
Conclusion and Recommendations
Raise awareness and understanding: The involvement of senior government officials is crucial for enhancing awareness of fraud centers and related crimes.
Strengthen the regulatory framework: There is a need to regularly review and reform the existing legal framework, particularly regarding the regulation of money laundering, virtual assets, special economic zones, and online gambling.
Enhance the technical and operational capabilities of law enforcement agencies: develop monitoring and investigation techniques, collect and analyze digital evidence, strengthen international cooperation, and improve the fairness of the judiciary.
Promote overall government response and inter-agency coordination: establish a national coordination mechanism to facilitate cooperation among various ministries and law enforcement agencies, and strengthen the identification and protection of victims of coercive crimes.
Promote pragmatic and effective regional cooperation: Strengthen cross-border collaboration, share information in a timely manner, and coordinate actions.
Through the analysis of the UNODC report, it can be seen that the Southeast Asian region has become a center for global cybercrime and illegal financial activities, and this trend is continuously expanding globally. In the face of these transnational crime threats, governments, regulatory agencies, and law enforcement agencies need to strengthen cooperation and build a more efficient international anti-money laundering and anti-fraud governance system. Especially in the context of virtual assets and Crypto Assets being increasingly misused for money laundering and fraud, global information sharing and technological collaboration will become key pathways to curbing related crimes. Only through comprehensive and multi-level international cooperation can we.