California Man Sentenced in $36.9M Crypto Scam Tied to Infamous Huione Group

A California man was sentenced to 51 months in prison for his role in laundering $36.9 million from a crypto investment scam that was carried out in Cambodian scam centers, according to a press release published by the Justice Department.

The Justice Department’s acting assistant attorney general Matthew G. Galeotti said the defendant was involved in a group that “preyed on American investors” by promising them high returns of crypto investments.

Blockchain security firm Elliptic co-founder Tom Robinson told CoinDesk that “some of the victim funds in this case were laundered through Huione International Payments, which operated through Huione Guarantee.”

Huione was a huge Telegram-based marketplace that was shut down in May based on intelligence from Elliptic, it was estimated to have facilitated up to $98 billion worth of illicit crypto transactions since 2014.

The defendant in this case was the former co-owner of the Bahamas-based Axis Digital, which the Justice Department said transferred the proceeds of the scam to a single account at Deltec Bank in the Bahamas before the capital was converted to tether (USDT) that was then distributed back to Cambodia.

Eight co-conspirators have also pleaded guilty so far including Daren Li, a national of China and St. Kitts and Nevis who has been in U.S. custody since April 2024 on separate money laundering charges.