Written by: Xiaobing, ShenChao TechFlow

April 1, 2026, Phnom Penh International Airport.

A man in handcuffs was placed in a black hood by Chinese special police and pushed onto a China Southern Airlines plane. A few hours later, the plane landed in a location in China, and the special police removed the hood, revealing a pale and tired face.

His name is Li Xiong, the chairman of Huibong Group and the most important right-hand man of Chen Zhi, the founder of Prince Group. During the years he managed Huibong, the name became well-known in the Chinese community in Phnom Penh, with small shops displaying the red QR codes of Huibong Payment, restaurant owners using it to collect payments, and casinos using it for transactions. Huibong Payment claimed to be "the Alipay of Cambodia," sounding harmless.

But that is just the tip of the iceberg.

Below the surface lies a $24 billion underground financial empire. A crime service supermarket woven from thousands of Telegram groups. An illegal market five times larger than the darknet king Hydra and three times bigger than FTX at its peak.

Its name is Huibong Guarantee.

Li Xiong's arrest occurred exactly 84 days after Chen Zhi, the founder of Prince Group, was escorted back to China. The succession of these two arrests marked the official end of the largest money laundering empire in cryptocurrency history.

The Dark Rise of a Fujian Teenager

To understand Huibong Guarantee, one must first understand the person behind it.

Chen Zhi, born in 1987 in Xiaoao Town, Lianjiang County, Fujian. This seaside town looks out towards the Mazu Islands to the east. The Chen family was ordinary, with a lower-middle-class economic status in the local context. Chen Zhi dropped out of school after completing his second year of junior high; at the age of fifteen or sixteen, his "classroom" moved from the classroom to the internet café.

Around 2005, internet cafes in coastal Fujian experienced rampant growth, and a group of teenagers completed the initial enlightenment of China's internet black industry here. Chen Zhi was one of them. He gathered a few classmates to form a small team, making a living by setting up private servers for the game "Legend of the Blood," cracking legitimate servers, and reselling user information. These businesses navigated the legal grey areas at the time but were highly profitable. The game private server became his first pot of gold.

His hometown friends later recalled that Chen Zhi also engaged in data sales, operated dating websites, and gaming social networking sites. In short, anything that made money online, legal or illegal, he did it.

By around 2010, Chen Zhi left Lianjiang with approximately 500,000 yuan in ill-gotten gains.

Destination: Cambodia.

Dream Building in Phnom Penh

In 2011, Phnom Penh was still a city on the brink of chaos. Chinese capital had just begun flowing into Southeast Asia, and Cambodia's real estate market was a blue ocean. Chen Zhi seized this window of opportunity.

He did not compete with large developers for prime land but bought low-priced land in the suburbs of Phnom Penh to build small houses and shops. This approach had low costs and quick turnovers, making it very suitable for a speculative investor with limited funds but a keen sense of opportunity.

In 2014, Chen Zhi spent $250,000 to obtain Cambodian investment immigration, acquiring local citizenship. From then on, the identity of the "Fujian Internet Café Teenager" was completely erased, replaced by "Vincent Chen Zhi, Cambodian Chinese Entrepreneur."

In 2015, Prince Group (Prince Holding Group) was officially established.

The ensuing speed was dazzling. Prince Group's signage was erected in the center of Phnom Penh, rapidly expanding its business from real estate into banking, insurance, telecommunications, retail, and tourism. Its shopping center, Prince Plaza, became a landmark in Phnom Penh, and Prince Bank received its official license in 2018. Chen Zhi even established the Prince Foundation, publicly engaging in charity, with donations exceeding $16 million, perfectly shaping an image of a "respected entrepreneur and philanthropist."

Political connections were the most critical lubricant for this machine. Chen Zhi reportedly spent $20 million hosting a 68th birthday banquet for Cambodia's then-prime minister Hun Sen, inviting diplomats from various countries for support. He received royal decrees appointing him as an advisor to various high-profile officials, including the Minister of Internal Affairs, the Chair of the National Assembly, and Prime Minister Hun Sen and his successor. In 2020, he was awarded the title of "Duke" and obtained a diplomatic passport.

On the streets of Phnom Penh, more than one-third of the Rolls-Royces belonged to Prince Group. When Chen Zhi traveled, he did so with bodyguards, and his vehicle was a Rolls-Royce. A person who had met him described: short stature, about 1.68 meters, a wide forehead, a Fujian accent, and a gaze that exuded "something fierce."

Beneath this glamorous surface, the true profit engine of Prince Group was another type of business.

Fraud Factory

Beginning in 2015, Chen Zhi built at least ten closed parks across Cambodia.

These parks were surrounded by high walls and barbed wire, preventing outsiders from entering. Thousands of cross-border workers from China, Vietnam, Myanmar, and Indonesia were drawn in by job ads promising high-paying IT jobs. Once they entered the park, their passports were confiscated, and their phones were monitored, reducing them to "tools" for telecom fraud.

The indictment from the U.S. Department of Justice revealed the operational details of these parks: Prince Group's fraud teams controlled millions of phone numbers, establishing "call centers" in multiple parks that resembled "phone farms." Two of the facilities were equipped with 1,250 phones and controlled approximately 76,000 social media accounts. Internal documents from Prince Group even taught employees how to create fake intimate relationships with victims, suggesting "avoid using overly attractive female avatars" to enhance credibility.

This is what is known as a "pig-butchering" scheme. Initially, using false identities to build trust and emotional connection with victims, "fattening the pigs"; then inducing victims to invest real money on fake investment platforms, "butchering the pigs."

Chen Zhi personally managed these fraud bases. In his ledger, profit records were explicitly labeled as "pig-butchering," detailing the floors and buildings responsible for each project. For resisting workers, his directive was four words: "Can hit, but cannot kill."

Cryptocurrency analytics firm Elliptic even discovered advertisements for electric shackles used to restrain workers in the Telegram groups associated with the parks.

The money earned from fraud flowed continuously from the victims' bank accounts into the underground vault of Prince Group. But this money was "dirty" and could not directly enter the formal financial system.

It needed a river to "wash."

This river was Huibong.

Darknet Version of Taobao

In 2021, Huibong Guarantee quietly launched on Telegram.

Its initial positioning seemed very normal, a platform for transaction guarantees in real estate and used cars. Buyers paid the Huibong Guarantee bot, and after sellers delivered goods, buyers confirmed receipt, and Huibong released the money to sellers. commissions were charged in the middle. Essentially, it was the "confirm receipt" model of Taobao.

But soon, the "goods" traded on this platform took a turn.

Money laundering services became the core category. In Huibong Guarantee's Telegram group, vendors openly advertised: receive dirty money, release clean funds. The jargon referred to those possessing dirty money or bank information as "material owners," the lower-level employees of the fraud parks as "dog pushers," and the work of money laundering intermediaries as "moving bricks."

A typical money laundering process goes like this: fraud groups deceive a sum of money through "pig-butchering," handing the money over to an intermediary on Huibong Guarantee. The intermediary uses a "money mule" network of shell accounts spread across dozens of countries to circulate the funds in layers, eventually returning them to the fraud group in the form of the USDT stablecoin. Intermediaries and money mules each take their commission.

The entire process operates like a precisely functioning industrial assembly line.

Huibong Guarantee does not only sell money laundering services. Its vendors also provide: fraud script packs, fake website development, AI face swap technology, personal information databases of trafficked individuals, citizenship information from various countries, Starlink satellite equipment (used for communications in fraud parks), and nearly any crime tool you can imagine can be purchased here.

Huibong Guarantee is a crime supermarket with clear pricing, and the Telegram groups are its shelves.

By mid-2024, when Elliptic first exposed this platform, its transaction volume had exceeded $11 billion. By early 2025, this figure had more than doubled to reach $24 billion. The active public groups of Huibong Guarantee on Telegram numbered as high as 9,289, with registered users exceeding 900,000.

For comparison: the largest darknet market in history, Hydra, operated for a full six years with a total transaction volume of only $5 billion. Huibong Guarantee achieved five times that in less than four years.

Documents obtained by Bloomberg from Huibong International Payment between 2022 and 2023 recorded thousands of victims and tens of millions of dollars in transactions. The documents revealed that Huibong's employees directly participated in monitoring transactions and resolving disputes, with the platform regularly taking commissions from transactions and even providing "high credit limits to outstanding money laundering teams."

In Phnom Penh, Huibong International Payment's office is located on the second floor of the Huibong Payment headquarters building. This glass and concrete structure features two panda statues at the entrance. Employees upstairs work under pseudonyms, with one department liaising with fraudsters, another monitoring Telegram channels, and another tracking money mule accounts distributed across dozens of countries.

When USDT is Not Safe Enough

What truly shocked about the Huibong empire is not its scale, but its speed of evolution.

In July 2024, Tether froze $29.62 million USDT in a wallet belonging to Huibong Payment. The reason for the freeze was that this wallet received stolen funds related to the North Korean hacking group Lazarus Group. On-chain investigator ZachXBT further discovered that the $35 million in stolen funds from Japan's DMM exchange ultimately also flowed into Huibong Payment's address.

Freezing the USDT posed a life-or-death threat to Huibong.

Because although USDT runs on a blockchain, it is essentially centralized, and Tether can freeze USDT in any address at any time in cooperation with law enforcement. For a money laundering empire reliant on USDT, this equates to having its throat grabbed.

Huibong's response drew attention from the entire industry.

In September 2024, Prince Group launched its own dollar stablecoin USDH. Its official promotional slogan was blunt to the point of arrogance: "Avoid common freezes and transaction restrictions of traditional digital currency," "Not subject to traditional regulatory agency limitations." Translated into plain language, it means: we created a stablecoin that cannot be frozen.

USDH was just the beginning. Huibong soon rolled out its own blockchain Huione Chain (also known as Xone Chain), its own cryptocurrency exchange Huione Crypto, and its own communication software ChatMe, a complete and self-sufficient dark digital kingdom.

It even tried to finance through ICOs, issuing a native blockchain token called "HC."

The logic behind these operations is frighteningly clear: If Tether has a grip on USDT, then create a stablecoin that no one can freeze; if Telegram can ban groups, then create a communication software; if existing blockchains can be traced, then create a chain ourselves.

Encirclement

But they were wrong.

In July 2024, Elliptic released the first investigative report on Huibong Guarantee, like a bomb thrown into the vision of global regulatory bodies.

Huibong Guarantee quickly rebranded as "Haowang Guarantee," attempting to separate its brand from Prince Group. Huibong Payment's official website also deleted pages describing Huibong Guarantee as a "subsidiary." However, Haowang Guarantee itself admitted on social media that Prince Group remained its "strategic partner and shareholder."

On May 1, 2025, the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) officially listed Prince Group as "a primary money laundering risk institution," announcing plans to completely exclude it from the U.S. financial system. FinCEN's report specifically named three entities associated with Prince Group, Huibong Payment, Huione Crypto, and Haowang Guarantee, stating they were "essentially one and the same" as the parent company.

In the same month, Telegram took action.

On May 13, Telegram banned over 3,000 accounts and channels related to Huibong in a single move on charges of "violating service terms." Within 48 hours, Haowang Guarantee issued an announcement of suspension, stating that "all NFTs and groups have been banned" and declared the cessation of all operations.

The empire appeared to collapse. But Huibong exhibited incredible resilience.

In the weeks following the suspension, blockchain analysis company Chainalysis found that the cryptocurrency transaction volume related to Huibong entities did not decrease but instead increased. Haowang Guarantee directed users to a new platform called "Tudou Guarantee," claiming to have acquired a 30% stake in it. Haowang also invested in Tudou Guarantee, achieving a shell-up business rebirth. It even developed independent communication software ChatMe, attempting to completely eliminate dependence on Telegram.

But a bigger blow was yet to come.

On October 14, 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice and the Department of Treasury jointly announced criminal charges against Prince Group founder Chen Zhi, issuing a global wanted notice and confiscating 127,271 bitcoins belonging to him, valued at about $15 billion at the time. This set the record for the highest single asset seizure of cryptocurrency in U.S. judicial history. At the same time, the U.S. Treasury placed 146 individuals and entities linked to Prince Group on the sanctions list. The UK simultaneously froze Chen Zhi's 19 properties and all assets in the UK.

Cambodia's GDP for 2024 is about $46 billion. The bitcoins confiscated by the U.S. from Prince Group at one time represented about one-third of this country's GDP.

Collapse

The chain reaction of sanctions occurred faster than anyone had anticipated.

In the late night of December 1, 2025, Huibong Payment suddenly announced: due to "millions of users concentrated withdrawals," the platform initiated a "deferred payment plan," suspending operations at all offline stores, with user funds potentially locked until January 5, 2026.

Long queues formed instantly on the streets of Phnom Penh.

Audit data from Bitrace showed that after Huibong Payment processed its last withdrawal on December 1, only about 990,000 USDT remained on-chain. Its Ethereum operations had exhausted their balance as early as October, while its Tron operation frequently pooled funds from hot wallets in November to cope with withdrawals, but was completely drained by around November 28. The daily outflow of USDT dropped sharply from $41.83 million at the beginning of the month to $7.17 million.

Huibong Payment, self-proclaimed "the Alipay of Cambodia," became a shell overnight.

Tens of thousands of Chinese merchants in Cambodia had their fortunes and lives locked in a dying platform. Until recently, many Huibong users still gathered spontaneously through social groups to seek debt recovery from the Cambodian National Bank, but no substantial progress has been made to date.

In December 2025, the Cambodian authorities revoked Chen Zhi's Cambodian citizenship on the basis of "improper means of obtaining citizenship."

On January 7, 2026, Chen Zhi was escorted back to China by Cambodian authorities.

In January 2026, after refunding $130 million USDT, Huibong's "Tudou Guarantee" reportedly ceased operations.

On April 1, 2026, Li Xiong was escorted back to China.

Thus, this vast empire, which started from an internet café in Lianjiang, Fujian, was gilded through Phnom Penh real estate, expanded through Telegram, laundered money using USDT, and fattened through "pig-butchering," has completed its entire lifecycle of crime.

The Dark River Never Dies

The story of Huibong Guarantee has ended. But the business model it validated has not.

Shortly after Haowang Guarantee announced its shutdown, Elliptic exposed another Telegram black market called "Xinbi Guarantee", which has facilitated at least $8.4 billion in illegal transactions since 2022 and has over 230,000 users. Xinbi Guarantee is registered in Colorado, USA, and its vendor operations also cover money laundering, counterfeit documents, and personal information databases, making it almost a replica of Huibong Guarantee.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime reports that the annual profits of organized online crime in Southeast Asia have approached $40 billion. Cryptocurrency and underground banking channels help these criminal networks quickly launder money, while Telegram-type instant messaging platforms provide them with low-cost, high-efficiency criminal infrastructures.

Chen Yanyu, a scholar studying cybercrime in Taiwan, spent several months in Cambodia talking to money launderers, fraudsters, and their leaders. Her conclusion is stark and realistic: "Cybercrime has deeply embedded itself in the global capitalist system, plundering resources from around the world. It cannot be easily dismantled."

The $24 billion dark river seems to have been cut off on the surface. But the riverbed remains, the upstream sources still flow, and the downstream demand persists.

Huibong has fallen, but the shadow side of this world still needs a place that can turn dirty money clean. The next Huibong may already be quietly growing in some Telegram channel.

References: Elliptic research reports, U.S. Treasury FinCEN announcements, U.S. Department of Justice indictments, Bloomberg investigative reports, Caixin reports, Interface News reports, Bitrace on-chain data analysis