Key highlights:
- The U.S. sanctioned Xinbi Guarantee for supporting scam and money laundering operations
- The Department of Justice seized crypto wallets linked to the platform
- North Korea-linked hackers reportedly used the platform to launder stolen funds from major crypto breaches
The United States announced sanctions this week against an online marketplace accused of enabling cyber fraud and money laundering operations targeting Americans. The sanctions were issued by the Treasury Department and the Department of Justice on Wednesday.
Treasury targets Xinbi marketplace tied to scam networks
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned the platform and two related firms, Singapore’s SafeW Technology and Cambodia’s Anwen Technology. They were accused of building messaging and payment apps that support scam operations.
The Department of Justice’s Scam Center Strike Force also said it seized Telegram channels and crypto wallets connected to the marketplace, freezing over $52 million in funds said to be linked to laundering activity.
“This is not a distant overseas crime story,” said Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, at a press conference announcing the sanctions. “It is an industrial extraction of American savings run by Chinese transnational criminal enterprises and platforms.”
The Treasury Department said the marketplace connects criminal vendors with scam operators, allowing them to buy and sell services used in fraud schemes.
“Xinbi’s platform is used by scam centre operators to purchase goods and facilitate transactions in support of cyberscam and cybercrime operations, including various types of financial fraud.”
A $24 billion illicit platform
Xinbi has processed over $24 billion worth of digital assets and fiat currency since emerging in 2022, according to the Treasury. Vendors on the platform advertise services through hundreds of Chinese-based Telegram channels. Xinbi offered services from money laundering and bank card fraud to stolen personal data, identity verification bypass tools, and scam website development.
The platform’s escrow system is key to how it operates. It holds vendor deposits and manages payments such that criminal buyers and sellers can transact without having to interact directly.
Some of the vendor network has also been linked to scam compounds in Southeast Asia, where trafficked workers are held under forced labor. The United Kingdom pointed to these human rights violations when it sanctioned the platform back in March.
Blockchain analysis has also connected Xinbi to North Korean hackers, who used “Black U” laundering vendors in the network to swap stolen, traceable coins for cleaner stablecoins.
Part of a wider crackdown on cyber fraud
The United States has been clamping down on illicit activities targeting Americans since the beginning of the year. President Donald Trump signed an executive order in March to combat fraud and predatory financial schemes.
Since then, the U.S. has formed a Counter-Scams Contact Group with 12 other countries to coordinate enforcement efforts.
Reports have shown how much financial damage these scams have caused. A March report from the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission found that Americans lost at least $10 billion to Southeast Asia-based scams in 2024.
Another House Select Committee on China investigation released in May found that scam centers in Cambodia and Myanmar are part of a criminal ecosystem tied to cyber fraud and money laundering.
The US government added that it had deployed teams to Madagascar to help dismantle 13 Chinese-run scam compounds as the crackdown intensifies.
Source:: US Sanctions Xinbi Marketplace Over Cyber Fraud Network Targeting Americans