Tether Halts 28m in USDT Associated with Cambodian Scam
Tether, a popular stablecoin, has reportedly frozen a Tron (TRX) wallet that contains over 28 million USDT tokens. These tokens are suspected to be the proceeds of criminal activities, including money laundering and fraud.
According to the USDT/USDC Ban List, an account dedicated to monitoring Tron and Ethereum stablecoins, Tether blacklisted an address called TNVaKW on July 13. This address was found to have $28.25 million worth of USDT tokens.
The frozen wallet is believed to be connected to a Cambodian company called Huione Group. Bitrace, a blockchain security firm, revealed in a post on July 14 that the frozen wallet, which was activated on July 9, is associated with Huione Group’s Guarantee business.
Bitrace’s analysis also showed that Huione attempted to bypass the freeze by activating a new address, TQuFSv, and transferring $114,800 worth of USDC from the frozen TNVaKW wallet.
Despite Tether’s action, Bitrace discovered that Huione’s other business addresses, including its old address TL8TBp, are still operational.
Huione Guarantee has recently been implicated in fraudulent activities, particularly pig-butchering scams, according to crypto-tracing firm Elliptic. The online marketplace has become a hub for scam operations in Southeast Asia and has been linked to criminal transactions totaling at least $11 billion.
Elliptic also claimed that Huione Guarantee acts as a deposit and escrow service for peer-to-peer transactions on Telegram, mainly using Tether’s USDT stablecoin. This has made it an attractive platform for scammers and money launderers.
Additionally, the blockchain analysis firm alleged that Huione Guarantee has connections to Cambodia’s ruling family, including Prime Minister Hun Manet.
Law enforcement and blockchain analysts have begun efforts to disrupt Huione’s operations by tracking crypto transactions and identifying wallets associated with the platform in response to Elliptic’s report.
The freeze imposed by Tether on the Tron wallet highlights the ongoing efforts to combat crypto-related fraud and the complex network of financial crimes facilitated by seemingly legitimate crypto platforms.
Read more: FATF urges more jurisdictions to take necessary precautions for virtual assets.
