WASHINGTON — The U.S. Treasury Department has expanded its crackdown on transnational scam networks, targeting financial and technology enablers in Singapore and Cambodia as the Department of Justice’s Scam Center Strike Force moves against scam infrastructure overseas.

The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned Xinbi Guarantee, a Chinese-language online marketplace allegedly used by cybercriminals to support scams, fraud and money laundering targeting Americans. It also designated two entities accused of providing digital currency and other financial services that support Xinbi Guarantee’s operations.

The action comes as the U.S. government steps up efforts to dismantle the wider infrastructure behind scam centres — including online marketplaces, digital asset services, payment networks and other technical and financial intermediaries that allow criminal groups to operate across borders.

The Department of Justice’s Scam Center Strike Force has also been conducting international operations against scam compounds, including a raid involving 13 compounds in Madagascar, highlighting the increasingly global footprint of organised scam operations.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said scam centres in Southeast Asia steal billions of dollars from American victims each year, describing the administration’s approach as an effort to dismantle the overseas criminal enterprises behind the fraud.

The latest sanctions are being taken under President Donald Trump’s Executive Order 14390, issued in March 2026, which directs the U.S. government to use available tools against foreign-backed criminal networks involved in cybercrime, cyber-enabled fraud and extortion targeting Americans.

Targeting the infrastructure behind the scams

Rather than focusing solely on individual scammers, the latest U.S. actions highlight the growing importance of targeting the technical, financial and digital infrastructure that enables scam operations.

OFAC said transnational criminal organisations increasingly rely on interconnected networks of online marketplaces, payment institutions, virtual asset service providers and money-laundering facilitators to move stolen funds and support cyber-enabled fraud.

The Singapore- and Cambodia-linked entities targeted in the latest action illustrate how scam networks can depend on legitimate-looking financial and digital services to move money across jurisdictions.

The crackdown also forms part of a broader U.S. effort against illicit digital marketplaces and money-laundering networks. OFAC pointed to previous sanctions involving the Prince Group Transnational Criminal Organization and related individuals, as well as Financial Crimes Enforcement Network measures concerning the Huione Group.

The United States is also coordinating with international partners. The latest action complements sanctions imposed by the United Kingdom against Xinbi Guarantee in March.

With scam operations now spanning physical compounds, online marketplaces, cryptocurrency infrastructure and cross-border financial networks, the U.S. crackdown signals a broader shift in strategy: disrupting the ecosystem that enables scams, rather than simply shutting down individual call centres or arresting operators.

Xinbi Guarantee operates an illicit online marketplace that serves as a central node connecting transnational criminal syndicates, including scam center operators, with merchants that provide financial services, technology, and other goods that support their criminal operations.

Xinbi’s platform is used by scam center operators to purchase goods and facilitate transactions in support of cyberscam and cybercrime operations, including various types of financial fraud.  Xinbi Guarantee provides scam operators, money laundering networks, and cybercrime syndicates with escrow services through its platform.  Xinbi Guarantee’s platform has reportedly been used by North Korean hackers and by several OFAC designated entities, including Jin Bei Group Co., Ltd. and entities that are part of the Prince Group TCO.

Since its inception around 2022, Xinbi Guarantee’s marketplace has processed the equivalent of over $24 billion in digital assets and fiat currency through its marketplace and via its platforms, primarily facilitating transactions in countries located in Southeast Asia.  Following FinCEN’s listing of Huione Pay, a financial services conglomerate of primary money laundering concern, cybercriminals attempted to preserve their operations by transferring their activities to Xinbi Guarantee’s marketplace, which has continued offering substantially similar services to an overlapping customer base.

KEY ENABLERS OF XINBI GUARANTEE

OFAC is also taking action against Southeast Asia-based application development companies responsible for providing applications that support Xinbi Guarantee’s illicit operations. Specifically, in response to growing law enforcement scrutiny, around June 2025, Xinbi Guarantee began migrating its merchant and money-laundering networks to SafeW, a highly private, end-to-end encryption messaging application developed by Singapore-based SafeW Technology Co., Ltd. (SafeW Technology).  Xinbi Guarantee encourages its users to use SafeW as a coordination platform for buyers and sellers.  At the same time, Xinbi Guarantee launched XinbiPay, also referred to as NewPay wallet, a cryptocurrency payment and digital wallet application developed by Cambodia-based Anwen Technology Co., Ltd (Anwen).

Xinbi Guarantee is being designated pursuant to E.O. 13581, as amended, for being a foreign person that constitutes a significant transnational criminal organization.

Anwen and SafeW Technology are being designated pursuant to E.O. 13581, as amended, for having materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, or technological support for, or goods or services to or in support of, Xinbi Guarantee.

Source — https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sb0624/

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