US adds sanctions involving Prince Group over scams, Treasury says

WASHINGTON - The United States issued sanctions on June 23 against nine people and 26 entities linked to the Prince Group, which it says has lead overseas scam operations targeting Americans.

The action builds on the Treasury Department’s 2025 designation of the Cambodian conglomerate, which has interests in everything from real estate to banking and airlines.

“Scam centres in South-east Asia steal billions of dollars from American victims each year,” said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in a statement.

Treasury said its Financial Crimes Enforcement Network proposed changing its 2025 Huione Group Final Rule to include HPay Service PLC and any successor entity.

The Huione Group has been critical in laundering proceeds of cyber heists and virtual currency investment scams and was used by the Prince Group for proceeds from its scams, Treasury said.

South-east Asia based transnational criminal organisations target Americans through large scale cyber fraud and scam operations, the department said.

“A US government estimate reported that Americans lost at least US$10 billion (S$13 billion) in 2024 to South-east Asia based scam operations, a 66 per cent increase over the prior year,” it said in a statement.

Treasury said one of the most common and lucrative schemes involves digital asset investment fraud. REUTERS