The UK has moved to cut off a major crypto-enabled pipeline for Southeast Asian scam operations, sanctioning Xinbi — which officials call “one of the largest illicit marketplaces in Southeast Asia” — for supplying cryptocurrency services to scam centres that defraud victims and exploit trafficked workers.
According to the government announcement, Xinbi provided a range of services used by criminal networks, including the sale of stolen personal data to help target victims and the supply of satellite internet equipment used to contact them. The UK says its sanctions are designed to isolate the platform from the legitimate crypto ecosystem by restricting its ability to send and receive cryptocurrency transactions.
The measures also target Legend Innovation Co., operator of a recently exposed scam compound known as #8 Park, which UK authorities link to the Prince Group. Described as Cambodia’s largest identified scam complex, #8 Park is reported to have capacity for up to 20,000 trafficked workers. Legend Innovation’s director, Eang Soklim, and several other individuals were sanctioned, including Thet Li — identified as a key lieutenant of Prince Group chairman Chen Zhi who managed the group’s international financial network.
Stephen Doughty, Minister of State for Europe, North America and Overseas Territories, framed the move as a firm warning: the sanctions send a “clear message” that the UK will not tolerate scam centres targeting British victims, or “the awful human rights abuses perpetrated in these scam centres.”
This action builds on prior pressure against the Prince Group. Joint US–UK sanctions last year targeting the group and Chen Zhi, the UK said, set in motion regional investigations and arrests and led to freezes and seizures of assets valued at more than £1 billion.
The crackdown comes amid growing international alarm over scam compounds across Southeast Asia. Interpol last November elevated these transnational networks to the level of a global threat, and human-rights groups such as Amnesty International have warned that mass escapes from Cambodian compounds have created a “humanitarian crisis.” Law enforcement around the world has ramped up efforts to choke off crypto-enabled fraud: Taiwan has indicted 62 people over laundering $339 million tied to Cambodian scam compounds; a US cross-agency “Scam Center Strike Force” launched in November 2025 has reported roughly $580 million in crypto seizures and freezes; and multinational operations such as Operation Atlantic — led by the US Secret Service with UK and Canadian partners — are targeting crypto fraud networks.
For the crypto industry, the Xinbi sanctions underline an intensified, coordinated global effort to disrupt the financial plumbing that supports large-scale fraud and trafficking — and to make it harder for illicit marketplaces to convert criminal activity into usable crypto value.
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