US Treasury Sanctions Southeast Asian Scam Networks Targeting Americans

The U.S. Treasury Department, led by Under Secretary Scott Bessent, has intensified sanctions against a Southeast Asian fraud ecosystem that stole at least $10 billion from American victims in 2024, a 66 % rise from the prior year. The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control designated dozens of individuals and entities linked to the Prince Group Transnational Criminal Organization in Cambodia, the Huione Group’s laundering services, and related actors in Myanmar and Burma.

The coordinated actions also included the Justice Department’s seizure of a cloud‑computing account used to move proceeds from cryptocurrency investment scams and the sanctioning of Cambodian senator Kok An and 28 associates, freezing $700 million in digital assets and disabling 503 scam domains. Officials said the schemes, often described as “pig‑butchering,” rely on forced labor and human‑trafficking, coercing workers in scam compounds to run fraudulent online investment operations.