UK imposes sanctions on Xinbi crypto platform tied to $20 billion scam operations

The United Kingdom has taken action against Xinbi, a cryptocurrency marketplace that has been accused of conducting approximately $20 billion worth of illegal transactions between the years 2021 and 2025. The sanctions placed on this company on March 26, 2022, work to freeze any assets in the UK or owned by someone who has links to the UK and also prohibits financial institutions in the UK from being able to transact with Xinbi or users of the platform. The measures taken against Xinbi will specifically tackle "on-ramps" and "off-ramps" (the entry and exit of clients onto or from a marketplace) that allowed scam organisation to operate in Cambodia and Myanmar.

Xinbi has primarily operated out of the messaging platform Telegram, by offering a cryptocurrency guarantee service to enable peer-to-peer transactions to be made without the usual oversight associated with these types of transactions. Officials allege the platform is associated with human traffickers using places like Cambodia's 8 Park, which houses approximately 20,000 trafficked workers who all run investment scams. In addition, Xinbi has also been accused of facilitating the operations of human trafficking as a result of the fraud it enabled. Some of the designations include Thet Li, Hu Xiaowei and Eang Soklim. Eang is the Director of Legend Innovation Co and is linked to the Prince Group network.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office have framed this crackdown as a continuation of their efforts against scam centres in Southeast Asia, which have previously been responsible for US authorities seizing USD 14B worth of bitcoin. UK enforcement agencies are terminating Xinbi's access to compliant exchanges and custodians by ordering the delisting of the exchange and blacklisting its wallets pursuant to the Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime. As such, properties in London associated with the group, including multi-million dollar assets, will now be subject to asset freezes.

This activity is generating momentum in advance of the June Illicit Finance Summit and demonstrates an unprecedented level of coordinated action against criminal activity associated with cryptocurrency. The raids carried out by the Thai authorities and the US FBI have already resulted in the freezing of approximately USD 580M in assets related to these two investigations, which illustrates the commitment of multiple countries to dismantle fraud operations that are based upon trafficking for funds. This designation is the first time that sanctions have been imposed on a cryptocurrency exchange marketplace.