The UK government has sanctioned a network of individuals and organizations allegedly linked to scam compounds in Southeast Asia.
Across Southeast Asia, scam centers are using sophisticated schemes, including romance scams, to defraud victims on an industrial scale.
The latest action by the UK government, announced on March 26, targeted Xinbi, one of the largest illicit online cryptocurrency marketplaces in the region with inflows of over $19.7 billion.
Based in China, Xinbi’s operators have been accused of selling the data of scam victims and trading satellite internet equipment, which is used to contact victims.
The UK is the fist country to sanction Xinbi.
Xinbi notably provides services to #8 Park, a recently identified scam compound linked to the Prince Group and believed to be Cambodia’s largest scam compound, with capacity to accommodate 20,000 trafficked workers to operate online scam schemes at scale.
Finally, the UK government accused Xinbi of having facilitated the laundering of stolen crypto assets by North Korea.
New Individuals and Entities Sanctioned by the UK
In addition to Xinbi, the newly sanctioned entities include Legend Innovation Co., the operator of #8 Park, BSquare Technology, a sister company of the Prince Group-linked crypto platform Byex, and Tian Xu International Technology, a Cambodian company linked to BSquare and Byex.
Several individuals are also on the sanctioned list, including Eang Soklim, the director of Legend Innovation Co. associates of the Prince Group chairman Chen Zhi and Wan Kuok Koi, a former triad leader involved in scam centres in Myanmar.
The UK government said it now plans to freeze “a number of London properties” because of these new sanctions.
Stephen Doughty, the British Minister of State for Europe, North America and Overseas Territories, said the sanctions sent a clear message, “We will not allow British people to become victims of these dreadful scams or tolerate the awful human rights abuses perpetrated in these scam centers.”
Elliptic Exposed Xinbi’s Crypto Scam Network
UK crypto-analysis firm Elliptic assisted the UK government with its investigation into #8 Park and the Xinbi network.
In May 2025, it published one of the first in-depth analysis of Xinbi Guarantee, a Telegram-based marketplace serving fraudsters across Southeast Asia.
The crypto-analysis firm, which investigates through the traces left by crypto transactions on the blockchain, said Xinbi is “the second-largest illicit online marketplace ever.”
In February 2026, Elliptic also published research into #8 Park that provided the first public details of the compound’s connection to the already-sanctioned Prince Group.
“Our research also identified cryptoasset addresses used by merchants operating inside the compound. These merchants, which included a supermarket, bakery and food stalls, accepted USDT payments from the compound’s workers,” the firm wrote in a statement published on March 26.
Elliptic reported that just five days after publishing its investigation, intelligence indicated the Xinbi-linked compound in Southeast Asia had been ordered to evacuate by February 13.
Videos circulating online further confirmed large-scale departures from the site, while on-chain data revealed a sharp drop in merchant payments starting around February 9, with transactions nearly halting entirely by February 13.
UK Ramps Up Fight Against Crypto Fraud
These new UK sanctions follow the coordinated US and UK designation of 146 entities and individuals linked to the Prince Group in October 2025, and the subsequent arrest and extradition of Prince Group chairman Chen Zhi to China in January 2026.
Cambodia’s government launched its largest ever crackdown on the scam economy following the 2025 UK sanctions. Local authorities have estimated that 2500 sites have been raided, leading to the closure of hundreds of scam centres and the release of tens of thousands of foreign nationals.
Additionally, Lord Hanson, the British Fraud Minister said new initiatives, such as the recently launched UK-backed Interpol Global Fraud Taskforce and the launch of the UK’s new Online Crime Centre will strengthen the UK’s ability to track, trace and shut down cross-border crypto-enabled fraud at its source.
The British Foreign Secretary, Yvette Cooper, is expected to drive international action to tackle the misuse of property and crypto-assets to launder dirty money and move it across international borders at the UK’s Illicit Finance Summit in June.
